Life (2023)
8KLife (2023). 3h 13m
“A multilayered film I canu0026#39;t recommend enough. During a talk after the screening, the director was cautious not to give any answers, although he made a surprisingly firm statement: u0026quot;If free will doesnu0026#39;t exist, life has no meaning.u0026quot; This might have reasserted the independence of the main heroine, but it immediately related to a question whether the meeting and shared dream with the hero was destined. The director made the point that we make our choices unconsciously – which surely doesnu0026#39;t contradict a determinist idea. He was perhaps insisting on social choice. Upon a question about his attitude towards religion which features strongly in the film, he said heu0026#39;s u0026quot;looking at it from a distanceu0026quot;. This isnu0026#39;t authoru0026#39;s cinema, but Zeki Demirkubuz has evoked one of the most powerfully beautiful female characters in cinema, subtly and cathartically, with the prolonged 193 minutes needed for us to experience the oppression and anguish. She is otherworldly, a mystery not by choice but due to patriarchy failing to understand her and aiming to destroy her, until she finds her saviour and realises that freedom is after all an understood necessity; the necessity of love.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMale characters range from despicable to confabulating to hilarious, depicted with psychological intricacy. Thereu0026#39;s the absent (in psychological terms) mother whom the heroine despises for her weakness, while still being fond of her abusive father… nothing is black and white and the director said he doesnu0026#39;t see a silver lining.”
