Cycle (2013)
55KCycle (2013). 1h 15m | Not Rated
“Set in a village close to the southwestern city of Burdur, DEVIR focuses on the vanishing rituals of rural life, set around an annual competition involving shepherds. The lifestyle might be hard; the amenities for the families primitive; the landscape unforgiving; but the inhabitants are happy with what they have, desiring nothing other than to ensure their own happiness.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYet times are changing; Ali (Ali Ozel), the youngest member of the shepherdu0026#39;s family, feels frustrated with life and departs for Istanbul. Director Dervis Zaim contrasts the bleakness of the urban landscape, blighted with pollution and full of impersonal-looking tower blocks, with the snow-capped mountains of the rural lands. One suggests permanence and stability; the other mutability and destruction. Ali finds no other employment other than working in a slaughterhouse, where his wages are regularly subject to u0026quot;surchargesu0026quot; from his unscrupulous boss. Returning to his village, Ali sets up a commercial hunting business for city-dwellers seeking to take trophies home to adorn their walls.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf rural life is so subject to commercial pressures, what future exists for it? In one sense, not a lot; we see the bulldozers plowing up the land in preparation for building more u0026quot;luxury flatsu0026quot; in the village. Yet we as viewers are encouraged to take pleasure in the moment; to enjoy the ways in which the villagers enjoy rime- honored rituals just for the sake of it, without extricating any profit out of them. The film has an underlying sympathy that transcends the social criticism, rendering it a memorable piece of work.”
