At the start of Turkish auteur Zeki Demirkubuz ’s long-awaited and frustratingly miscalculated “ Life ” — the filmmaker’s first movie in seven years, now serving as Turkey’s international feature submission to the Academy Awards —a young woman named Hicran flees the claws of an impending arranged marriage and goes into hiding. We learn as much, not from Hicran at first, but from the men in her orbit, as the likes of her embarrassed dad and distraught former fiancé drop Hicran’s name in conversations and ponder the circumstances surrounding her mysterious flight. Quickly, it feels pointed to keep hearing the word “Hicran,” a common-enough female name in Turkey (where this critic is from) that roughly translates as “longing,” or rather, the intense pain one feels out of longing.
That’s because it’s anything but an accidental name choice here, as everyone in “Life” seems to be yearning for something or someone. The trouble is Demirkubuz almost stubbornly demonstrates that he is a lot more interested in (and even sympathetic towards) the unmet needs and growing aches of the men in Hicran’s path, despite the fact that they are, in various ways, the oppressors of Hicran and countless other women like her, in a society where a considerable portion of the population still holds onto patriarchal values. So while Hicran is gradually revealed to be the main protagonist of the story, Demirkubuz leaves her desires and dreams curiously vague, often placi.
