17/02/2014 - Kutlug Ataman's third fiction film features a heart-warming approach to a serious subject matter

Turkish writer-director Kutlug Ataman returns to fiction filmmaking after a nine-year break with The Lamb [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which screened in the Berlinale's Panorama Special section won the CICAE Art Cinema Award. Known for the multi-award-winning films 2 Girls (2005) and Lola and Billy the Kid (1999), Ataman delivers a heartwarmingly humorous story from rural Anatolia with his latest effort.

Five-year-old Mert (adorably expressive Mert Taştan) is about to undergo a circumcision with four more boys from the village. All of the boys are frightened (who wouldn't be?), but Mert's fear has attained the level of panic, induced by his older sister, Vicdan (talented Sıla Lara Cantürk). Tradition demands that the family throw a feast in celebration of the occasion, which requires roast lamb. As they can hardly afford one, Vicdan tells Mert that if they don't get it, their father, Ismail (Cahit Gök, best known for thriller Hunting Season), will have to sacrifice the boy instead. This is the source of most of the good-hearted black humour that the film is rich in.

Ismail has finally got a job – fittingly, as a butcher – but his first salary goes to travelling entertainer Safiye (Nursel Köse, from The Edge of Heaven [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fatih Akin
interview: Klaus Maeck
film profile]), whose singing performances are just a cover for her real job as a prostitute. Mert’s mother, Medine (gorgeous Nesrin Cavadzade), disappointed yet again in her husband, decides to take the matter into her own hands and save the reputation of her family.

Ataman's decision to tell a story about some of the most frequent and serious problems within Turkish society in a light-hearted and funny way is spot on. If this were a bleak film about family issues in a traditional community, it would probably find itself in the same pile of similarly themed stories coming out of the region between Turkey and the Middle East. The way Ataman has made it, The Lamb has the chance to become one of the rare feel-good offerings on the festival circuit, and judging by the applause at the Berlinale screenings, audience awards are to be expected, despite the fact that the denouement is executed somewhat clumsily.

The Lamb was co-produced by the Istanbul-based Institute for the Readjustment of Clocks and Hamburg-based Detailfilm.