classicsoncall Review of My Father and My Son

My Father and My Son (2005)

"When a person grows up, do his dreams become smaller?"

[8/10 · 3 April 2018]

I'm gradually becoming less and less surprised when I see a foreign film that's every bit as good as those produced by Americans or the Brits. This was my first Turkish film, and for those of you struggling to find it, I would direct you to Youtube where you can find it in it's entirety with English subtitles. As the translated title suggests, the story is about a man struggling to come to terms with a father who disowned him, and his feelings of growing away from his own seven year old son. The back story of Sadik's (Fikret Kuskan) personal history does not fully come to light until well into the picture, when we learn that he became an anarchist journalist, much to the dismay of his father, who had designs for his son to take over the family farm upon attaining an agricultural degree. For viewers with a Turkish background, the conflict that resulted in Sadik's jail time and torture will probably be understood better within the context of that country's history, so for someone like myself, a lot of that perspective is lost. However that doesn't affect the impact of the story when it's finally revealed that Sadik's reconciliation with his father occurred because of his impending death due to a pulmonary edema condition. The man did a noble thing for his own son Deniz (Ege Tanman) by returning him to the village of Sadik's childhood to remain with family and friends. I would challenge the viewer to maintain a dry eye as the mystery of father/grandfather Huseyin's (Çetin Tekindor) 'secret room' reveals Sadim's happy and hopeful youth before he left his family. One comes away from the film with a serene sense of family bond that transcends nationality, as in the end, we are all humans subject to the same emotions of love and loyalty.