ENVY

ENVY (KISKANMAK), 2009Serda

Turkey| HDD, Color, 96’|Turkish

Cast: Nergis Öztürk, Serhat Tutumluer, Berrak Tüzünataç, Hasibe Eren,

r Orçin

It’s the 1930s. The Republic Day Ball is in progress in Zonguldak, a coal mining town in Turkey. Among the invited guests are the newcomers to this small and boring town: Halit, a mine engineer; his gorgeous wife, Mükerrem; and Halit’s sister and unwanted household member, Seniha. When Nüshet, whose father is the richest man in town, asks Mükerrem for a dance, Seniha, who has been watching them from a dark corner, immediately realizes that Mükerrem will not be able to resist the incredible (and feminine) beauty of this young man. At the same moment, she also knows that God would lift her up from the place where she has long surrendered to a fate of ugliness, to a place where she would be the one who determines the destiny of beauty.

“Do you realizethatwith Envy this is the first time that [Demirkubuz] takes us this deep into the female soul? Previously, we only looked at them from behind the shoulder of the main male protagonist. The film is different from its predecessors in this aspect as well. Envy is the story of two women, one of which has subjected herself to male domination and the other to male passion. Halit is a mere bit player in this story. If you see Envy as a film that attempts to read the minds and hearts of two women, some pieces may fall into place more easily.” – Burçin Yalçın