Araf—Somewhere In Between (2012, Yeşim Ustaoğlu) (Patreon)

28/100

Still dutifully working my way through unseen recent-ish NYFF selections. (This one wasn't at TIFF that year and never got a U.S. release*.) Bland and forgettable for most of its two hours, but the ending made my skin crawl, and I see no evidence that Ustaoğlu (whose 1999 film Journey to the Sun I saw but have literally no memory of) intended that reaction. If we're meant to feel warm and fuzzy about these two crazy kids finally getting married, albeit in prison—and that's sure what it seems like—please allow me to lodge a number of strenuous objections. One: At no time do they seem remotely compatible as a couple. He has a puppy-dog crush on her (but see below); she finds him mildly amusing. That's about it. When I picture their hypothetical future following his release, it looks decidedly grim. Two: The unwanted-pregnancy subplot (featuring the most graphic miscarriage/self-abortion scene I've ever witnessed) gets rushed through in a way that makes it quite difficult to retain one's empathy for Zehra. Dumping a fetus out the window in desperation is one thing; subsequently lying about it to doctors and the police, taking no responsibility, is another. Three: Once the "nice guy" assaults Zehra's friend, screaming "You made her a whore!", I'm afraid that I no longer perceive him as the "nice guy." He's now running a very distant second to Bizarrely Silent And Probably Married Long-Haul Trucker Who's Apparently Quite A Good Lay, even if the latter has exited the picture both figuratively and literally. Granted, the film's title refers to a moral gray area, and these characters are clearly meant to be flawed. But if Ustaoğlu meant for her finale to inspire the queasiness of, say, Late Marriage's, she whiffed it badly in my opinion. And even if I've completely misread Araf, it's still pretty dull, distinguished only by pretty landscape shots and the occasional injection of goofy humor (Zehra starting an online profile and receiving her first dick pic, Olgun's obsession with the Turkish version of Deal or No Deal). There's a reason why nobody's talking about it eight years later.

* By the way, and this is a long shot, but if anyone reading this has a line on securing Souleymane Cissé's Min Ye a.k.a. Tell Me Who You Are, which has apparently vanished from the face of the earth, please let me know. It's just barely possible that someone here still has the NYFF screener (though for all I know it'd be on fucking VHS).