MUD

MUD, 2002

Turkey | 35mm, Color, 97’ | Turkish

Cast:Taner Birsel, Yelda Reynaud, Bülent Emin Yarar, Mustafa Uğurlu, Arslan Kaçar

Mud had its world premiere at the 60^th Venice Film Festival. During the last weeks of his military service in Cyprus, Ali becomes mute because of a mysterious disease. He pins his hopes on a pool of healing mud, thinking it might cure his illness. The mud does improve Ali’s health so that over time he develops a kind of passion for it. He ends up finding a statue of an ancient fertility goddess buried in the mud. But this discovery will bring disaster, both to him and his friends. The score is by Michael Galasso, who also wrote the music to Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love.

“The film has a stylistic poise that bolsters its curiosity value. Scenes are often elliptical, always succinct, with some lovely location photography of fences, deserts and the horizon.”– TimeOut