The Watchtower is the second feature by Pelin Esmer who has already established herself with first documentary "Oyun" ("The Play") and her debut feature "10 to 11". "10 to 11" sounded so much like a documentary film that you can say 'The Watchtower' can be regarded as her debut feature. The Watchtower tells the story of Nihat(Olgun Simsek) and Seher ( Nilay Erdonmez). Nihat works as a sentinel at a remote forest fire tower. On a fire lookout tower, his only duty is to search for wildfires. All alone in the wilderness, the only people he can communicate are the other guards who keep their colleagues posted on the intercom. Normally, the guards are changed at regular intervals so that they can get down into the town and buy stuff. When his boss can't find anyone to help Nihat out, he bears his confinement with patience. He even seems to enjoy the moments of solitude. The small building he lives, located on the edge of a high vantage point does not only maximize the viewing distance he has but also his need for the utter seclusion of the countryside. While the other guards talk about their families on the intercom, he doesn't really partake.Through his limited talks with the other guards over the intercom we learn that he blames himself for causing the death of his wife and kid in a traffic accident.Self-reproach and dejection apparently drove him further from the regular human contact, and in proportion to the amount of conscience he had by nature,he had become more and more aloof. For that matter ,Seher,who happens to work in the rural bus station where Nihat eats out and buys his stuff.,sounds like a God-sent refreshing spirit.She's actually the only one Nihat practically tries to communicate.
The solitude, the escape from something you can't just run away is actually what Seher is seeking too. She used to be a university student who lodged in her uncle's house and apparently she has been raped by her uncle. She's carrying a baby that she doesn't really want. She has nowhere to go and that remote rural bus station is just giving her some time. Both Nihat and Seher do actually run away from their past. The very past they run away from is actually what makes their story collide.
They live in a traditionalist society where there are clear-cut gender roles. In the very society which prevent women from controlling their own fertility, where sex is a taboo, where there are still honour-killings, there also child brides who are married off to guys old enough to be their grandfathers, there are incestuous rapes which are consistently covered up and there is also polygyny which is regarded as 'relatively normal.' In that sense, Esmer's minimalist movie is a slap in the face of hypocrisy. Beneath the serene beauty of idyllic forests Nihat works in, lurks a nightmare that a young woman has had to live. With scanty dialogue but brilliant acting, the actors make you feel that. They make you feel that this time Pelin Esmer made something more than a documentary. As a viewer you really feel that in spite of the slow pace of the movie. Even if you don't indulge in movies shot in long takes at a leisurely pace, in long periods of silence you feel that this film has actually so much tell. Right at that moment, you meet the ultimate dénouement which could have been expressed as a final brief scene, a bit of narration, or a short bit of action and even some talk but no our two magnificent actors talk to each other. In two minutes they say to each other more than they have ever talked in an entire movie. To justify her actions, Seher blames Nihat for killing his wife and child, for something probably he has never forgiven himself. Then you just ask yourself 'Have I been time-travelled from a minimalist artsy film into a mainstream movie?' Fortunately the movie ends and leaves you lingering there with your question.
The solitude, the escape from something you can't just run away is actually what Seher is seeking too. She used to be a university student who lodged in her uncle's house and apparently she has been raped by her uncle. She's carrying a baby that she doesn't really want. She has nowhere to go and that remote rural bus station is just giving her some time. Both Nihat and Seher do actually run away from their past. The very past they run away from is actually what makes their story collide.
They live in a traditionalist society where there are clear-cut gender roles. In the very society which prevent women from controlling their own fertility, where sex is a taboo, where there are still honour-killings, there also child brides who are married off to guys old enough to be their grandfathers, there are incestuous rapes which are consistently covered up and there is also polygyny which is regarded as 'relatively normal.' In that sense, Esmer's minimalist movie is a slap in the face of hypocrisy. Beneath the serene beauty of idyllic forests Nihat works in, lurks a nightmare that a young woman has had to live. With scanty dialogue but brilliant acting, the actors make you feel that. They make you feel that this time Pelin Esmer made something more than a documentary. As a viewer you really feel that in spite of the slow pace of the movie. Even if you don't indulge in movies shot in long takes at a leisurely pace, in long periods of silence you feel that this film has actually so much tell. Right at that moment, you meet the ultimate dénouement which could have been expressed as a final brief scene, a bit of narration, or a short bit of action and even some talk but no our two magnificent actors talk to each other. In two minutes they say to each other more than they have ever talked in an entire movie. To justify her actions, Seher blames Nihat for killing his wife and child, for something probably he has never forgiven himself. Then you just ask yourself 'Have I been time-travelled from a minimalist artsy film into a mainstream movie?' Fortunately the movie ends and leaves you lingering there with your question.