I don't know how to review this film. A young bride of about thirteen is forced into an arranged marriage with an overweight and unattractive man of around sixty who has just been released from a Turkish prison after a long sentence. The happy couple are serenaded to their home by a caravan of friends and neighbors. The young girl, dressed in white and wearing a red veil, is taken to a room and told to obey every wish of her husband. The old man shows up and asks for his ritual water for prayers. He washes his hands and feet, and they pray together. Over the course of the night, they play cat's cradle and he recites a well know Turkish fable. Tradition calls for the white bed sheet to be handed over with the obligatory red stains for proof of virginity. The ending is rather abrupt, but the young actress is very beautiful and convincing as a reluctant bride. Night of Silence is an interesting look at a disturbing cultural and religious practice.
6 Reviews
A community where his legs are not in balance
billsarioz10 June 2013
"Lal Gece" is a movie about a phenomena in some part of world, this story goes over for Turkey's eastern part.
A noname-man (groom) a noname-little girl (bride), in a a room first time of their marriage which is dictated by tradition. The film puts a light to what's happening between these two people and their differences and how human created traditions can shape a society; A society with unbalanced legs.
There are reasons, excuses in the movie which you can see how these 2 people came together in this room, but they are actually palliative.
It's drama which millions of women have been living and this film is putting a big light on to the issue.
A noname-man (groom) a noname-little girl (bride), in a a room first time of their marriage which is dictated by tradition. The film puts a light to what's happening between these two people and their differences and how human created traditions can shape a society; A society with unbalanced legs.
There are reasons, excuses in the movie which you can see how these 2 people came together in this room, but they are actually palliative.
It's drama which millions of women have been living and this film is putting a big light on to the issue.
Down
yusufpiskin22 March 2020
You were scared of my moustache. You thought there was a man underneath?
elsinefilo9 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers
In spite of all the humanitarian efforts, there is still a widespread prevalence of child marriage in rural Eastern Turkey. Young girls who barely graduate from high school are betrothed to suitable bachelors. In some extreme cases, girls as young as 12-13 are married off to men old enough to be their grandfathers. Child brides have always been used in Turkish cinema and almost all of the previous movies simply blamed the patriarchal authority. Women consent to their fate shaped up by their fathers and husbands and young men don't really question their roles assigned to them by their forefathers. Women are naturally the victim while the men are the unquestionable oppressor.
Reis Çelik's 'Nigh of Silence' is different in a way that it tries look into the world of a child marriage inside. Without trying lose his objectivity, Mr Çelik wants to put us in the shoes of both the bride and the groom. The nameless groom is played by silver screen veteran İlyas Salman and the bride is played by Dilan Aksüt in her debut role.
In the opening sequences we see the bride paying his homage to two unidentified graves. Apparently he served quite a long time in prison and now he's back in village and he's supposed to marry the girl who is chosen for him. Reis Çelik is known for his documentary skills so the opening sequences show us a wedding which, for a moment, makes you feel like you are going to watch a documentary. The nonprofessional people used the in the wedding lacks any acting skills so the dialogue sounds quite stilted. Most of the movie is actually a high strung chamber film. The child bride knows exactly what she is supposed to do. She knows the traditional customs 'she arrived there in a white wedding dress and she'll leave only in a funeral shroud'. She is so young, so delicate that she tries anything to put off consummating their marriage in their nuptial chamber. The groom notices her delicacy and tries anything to persuade her. The groom is probably the most genteel man you would ever meet in such a culture. Reis Çelik wants us to see things from his window. He practically humanizes the groom. He is too victimized by the very customs, traditions, destiny he lives in. He is, too, helpless like the bride. He doesn't face up to the set of rules of defined by him. He doesn't defy his fate that was cut out for him years ago. In one of the most didactic scenes in the movie he even loses it and calls himself a clown and says: 'My mother says, "Marry this girl." I marry her. "Divorce her," she says. I divorce her. My uncle says, "Your mother's a stain on our honour." I kill my mother." 'Lal Gece' has a deliberately slow pace so it may feel a bit languorous, affectedly pensive or just lackadaisical for general cinema goers and that might explain why it attracted so few viewers at the theatre. For this very reason it does not really offer a scathing, harsh commentary but it might just give you some raw insight into the social conditions where the women are labelled as victims and the men are victimizers.
Reis Çelik's 'Nigh of Silence' is different in a way that it tries look into the world of a child marriage inside. Without trying lose his objectivity, Mr Çelik wants to put us in the shoes of both the bride and the groom. The nameless groom is played by silver screen veteran İlyas Salman and the bride is played by Dilan Aksüt in her debut role.
In the opening sequences we see the bride paying his homage to two unidentified graves. Apparently he served quite a long time in prison and now he's back in village and he's supposed to marry the girl who is chosen for him. Reis Çelik is known for his documentary skills so the opening sequences show us a wedding which, for a moment, makes you feel like you are going to watch a documentary. The nonprofessional people used the in the wedding lacks any acting skills so the dialogue sounds quite stilted. Most of the movie is actually a high strung chamber film. The child bride knows exactly what she is supposed to do. She knows the traditional customs 'she arrived there in a white wedding dress and she'll leave only in a funeral shroud'. She is so young, so delicate that she tries anything to put off consummating their marriage in their nuptial chamber. The groom notices her delicacy and tries anything to persuade her. The groom is probably the most genteel man you would ever meet in such a culture. Reis Çelik wants us to see things from his window. He practically humanizes the groom. He is too victimized by the very customs, traditions, destiny he lives in. He is, too, helpless like the bride. He doesn't face up to the set of rules of defined by him. He doesn't defy his fate that was cut out for him years ago. In one of the most didactic scenes in the movie he even loses it and calls himself a clown and says: 'My mother says, "Marry this girl." I marry her. "Divorce her," she says. I divorce her. My uncle says, "Your mother's a stain on our honour." I kill my mother." 'Lal Gece' has a deliberately slow pace so it may feel a bit languorous, affectedly pensive or just lackadaisical for general cinema goers and that might explain why it attracted so few viewers at the theatre. For this very reason it does not really offer a scathing, harsh commentary but it might just give you some raw insight into the social conditions where the women are labelled as victims and the men are victimizers.
A worthy film, but is that enough?
clewis266612 December 2015
This should really be a play. The only action (or inaction, perhaps I should say) is filmed in a straight forward manner in the bridal chamber of an old man and a child in backward Anatolia. They converse to an extent and the ending may be a surprise. Clearly it is an honest film that portrays aspects of this strange and distasteful tribal situation (uncivilised is hardly the word for it) and it would work well as a chamber piece in the theatre, but for the ordinary film-goer, such as me, I am afraid it is a bit of a non-event and rather boring in its 90 minutes progress (or lack of it). So, interesting certainly for anyone concerned with Turkey and its traditions and/or its folklore such as Scherezade but otherwise I guess I would advise you to give it a miss.
Wow! Blown away!
bad_rino9 January 2016
Warning: Spoilers
First off it must be said that almost the whole film takes place in one room, and the pace is rather slow, but this is all the better for character-driven film lovers.
The script is a masterpiece, not only for its lightness while tackling a very deep and controversial subject in Turkish tradition but above all for its capacity to transform a ready-given seemingly complex situation into an obvious and simple one: an old man is trying to have sex with a child. Period. Reis Çelik cleverly brings out this simple fact through the successive games the groom has to partake in order to convince the bride. A child remains a child and an old man is still an old man, mustache or no mustache. By the way both the groom and the bride are wonderfully interpreted and we really feel for them.
I don't give it a higher note because of some weird choices that throw the film down a notch: one which I really can't understand is the groom's POV when entering the room, sweeping away all the power that laid in the brides POV during the ceremony etc...
But all in all I was surprised by how good this film was and feel lucky I was able to see it even though almost four years have passed since its release.
And for all the "ordinary film-goer" crap I read in the other comments I think you're misusing the term. You mean the "ordinary film-consumer". What you're saying is that if you're seeking to be entertained and have difficulty remaining seated if major events don't happen every ten minutes, then yes, I agree, this film is not for you.
The script is a masterpiece, not only for its lightness while tackling a very deep and controversial subject in Turkish tradition but above all for its capacity to transform a ready-given seemingly complex situation into an obvious and simple one: an old man is trying to have sex with a child. Period. Reis Çelik cleverly brings out this simple fact through the successive games the groom has to partake in order to convince the bride. A child remains a child and an old man is still an old man, mustache or no mustache. By the way both the groom and the bride are wonderfully interpreted and we really feel for them.
I don't give it a higher note because of some weird choices that throw the film down a notch: one which I really can't understand is the groom's POV when entering the room, sweeping away all the power that laid in the brides POV during the ceremony etc...
But all in all I was surprised by how good this film was and feel lucky I was able to see it even though almost four years have passed since its release.
And for all the "ordinary film-goer" crap I read in the other comments I think you're misusing the term. You mean the "ordinary film-consumer". What you're saying is that if you're seeking to be entertained and have difficulty remaining seated if major events don't happen every ten minutes, then yes, I agree, this film is not for you.
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