Bliss, aka Mutluluk

Bliss, aka Mutluluk. A fine film. In Turkish, with subtitles. Stars Özgü Namal, directed by Abdullah Oguz. Stars Ozgu, directed by Oguz. I shouldn't make fun, there are probablyEnglish names that exhibit similar characteristics.

Young woman shepherd from rural village is assaulted. According to tradition, she is tainted and condemned to death. They almost talk her into hanging herself, but at the last minute she backs out, just to spite her evil stepmother. The village leader decides they cannot kill her there in the village because there are too many soldiers around. They decide to wait until her half-brother returns from the military and have him take her to Istanbul and kill her there.

We've got some seriously screwed up folks here. Makes me wonder how they got this way. I suspect poverty has a lot to do with it. One less woman means that many fewer babies to feed and raise. One less woman makes all the remaining women somewhat more valuable. Not actually valuable mind you, just worth something more than nothing.

The story goes on, things happen, it is a bit of a Cinderella story. At the end Meryem talks for a bit, and it's like more than she has said during the entire rest of the film.

Update April 2016 replaced picture with larger one.