- Set in a village in Anatolia at the foothills of the mountains, portraying the story of the resistance of a young man, Ali, against the domination of landlords and local gangs, striving to win back his wife's love and affection.
- In a small Anatolian village, Ali, who is trying to make a living with the reeds he cuts, is asked to be attached to the tribute by the village's gang. His resistance to Yahya and his men has deepened Ali's poverty and his marriage to his wife Aysel has come to a breaking point. Ali hides from the gang and tries cutting in the lake and sell the reed he can save. But he is caught by the gang men, his boat is broken and his whole harvest is burned. Aysel gives up hope that Hasan can improve the situation; she starts working in the warehouse belonging to the same gang. Ali, with the fear of losing Aysel completely; despite the pursuit of Yahya's men, he continues to cut the reeds. He causes the accidental death of Yahya's closest man during an argument. Seeing this man dead, whom he suffered for years, changes Ali's mood completely. As the villagers, who remember the legends of the lake's curse, throw fear away, Ali takes action to take revenge on Yahya, who leads the gang.—yusufpiskin
- This suspenseful fifth feature by Cemil Agacikoglu tells the story of a man in an Anatolian village whose livelihood is threatened by local gangs and whose life depends on waging - and winning - a battle between good and evil.
In the rough landscape of central Turkey sits the village of Bolvadin. In it lies a lake upon which the villagers depend for their livelihoods. In this isolated place with its own codes and laws, greedy landlords and brutish gangs dominate the downtrodden people who have over time been convinced that survival depends on obedience.
Among them lives humble Ali (Hilmi Ahiska), who earns a meagre living cutting reeds. He is in love with his wife Aysel (Sevgi Temel), though their marriage is not without woes and is at a dangerous precipice. When a kingpin named Yahya (Gökhan Yikilkan) pressures Ali to join his disreputable crew, Ali refuses, triggering enmity. Meanwhile, fed up with poverty, Aysel accepts the same offer. Distraught with her acquiescence and exposure to Yahya's underworld, Ali makes a daring attempt to reverse her decision. His well-intentioned but hasty interference threatens his harvest and more. And when an altercation with one of Yahya's men ends in tragedy, Ali must reap what he sows. The land, too, has memories and, as the legends of the lake's curse decree, Ali must now look within himself and to the lessons of his birthright to overcome his enemies.
In the footsteps of author Yasar Kemal, whose 1955 saga Memed, My Hawk foretold the need for rebellion in the human soul, writer-director Cemil Agacikglu returns to the place he's visited and woven stories about for more than 30 years. The Reeds is a suspenseful and stark rumination on how the inner battles we wage define us.
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