First of all, the movie does not concern about how Sarikamis had started or how and why the operation fell apart. It just spots on 8 people whose faiths cross on the way of Sarikamis while this shameful war disaster is happening. It can be seen as a survival movie which is fed by historical events in the last years of Ottoman Empire.
Instead of telling the entire historical story of Sarikamis, movie spots on a micro story and narrates how people suffered from the war. The story mainly focuses on the struggle of these 8 people to survive against the nature. War and its inhuman effects lie all over the background of the big picture. Two Turkish (Ottoman) soldiers who somehow survived from the war disaster reflects human nature and bleakness when the mother nature and the things happen in the war force human mind and physicality. Other characters are more likely the symbols of mankind against nature. They seem away from the war and seem to deal with just the problems coming from the mother nature. However, they have to fight against the invisible punches coming from the reality of war at the same time. In other words, the message is clear: war affects everybody around itself whether you are physically involved or not.
The movie is also successful, if it is considered as a "survival against nature" type movie. hopelessness, death, hunger and struggle for life can be felt to the bone during the movie. The best feature of it is to force audience to ask the question "what would we do, if we were them?" to themselves. The story line grips you to empathize with the characters, especially the soldiers who survived from the war incident.
It should be declared that it is not a pure war movie. It does not have any purpose to emphasize nationalism which can generally be seen in war movies. The story line is so simple and clear to tell what it wants to tell to the audience. There are mainly two main ideas to be reflected: First one is how a mankind can be pathetic and defenseless against mother nature and the second one is that the war forces us to bring the inhuman part of us out.
If you take the fact into account that this is the first movie of the director, I would like to say that we must watch him more closely for his further works.
Instead of telling the entire historical story of Sarikamis, movie spots on a micro story and narrates how people suffered from the war. The story mainly focuses on the struggle of these 8 people to survive against the nature. War and its inhuman effects lie all over the background of the big picture. Two Turkish (Ottoman) soldiers who somehow survived from the war disaster reflects human nature and bleakness when the mother nature and the things happen in the war force human mind and physicality. Other characters are more likely the symbols of mankind against nature. They seem away from the war and seem to deal with just the problems coming from the mother nature. However, they have to fight against the invisible punches coming from the reality of war at the same time. In other words, the message is clear: war affects everybody around itself whether you are physically involved or not.
The movie is also successful, if it is considered as a "survival against nature" type movie. hopelessness, death, hunger and struggle for life can be felt to the bone during the movie. The best feature of it is to force audience to ask the question "what would we do, if we were them?" to themselves. The story line grips you to empathize with the characters, especially the soldiers who survived from the war incident.
It should be declared that it is not a pure war movie. It does not have any purpose to emphasize nationalism which can generally be seen in war movies. The story line is so simple and clear to tell what it wants to tell to the audience. There are mainly two main ideas to be reflected: First one is how a mankind can be pathetic and defenseless against mother nature and the second one is that the war forces us to bring the inhuman part of us out.
If you take the fact into account that this is the first movie of the director, I would like to say that we must watch him more closely for his further works.
