Oh, Moon!

Oh, Moon!, 1989

Turkey, 35mm, Black & White, 100’
Turkish

Cast: Yeşim Tozan, Gülsen Tuncer, Nurinisa Yıldırım, Münir Özkul

Filmed in Büyükada, Reha Erdem’s first feature Oh Moon! is a movie made up of dreams, the unconscious, and legends, with fairytale-like impressive imagery, an unusual cinematic language, and experimental quests. The film shows a chapter from the life of 11-year-old Yekta who is growing up without a mother in an old house with her strict aunts and sick grandfather. The year it was released the film earned much acclaim at international festivals such as Locarno, Moscow, and Vancouver. Through its poetic and mystical world and unique conception of time and space the film is an example of personal cinema.

“It points to the weight passed on from generation to generation and from person to person of every moment, every individual, every suffering, every dream that departs from human life. It is therefore a rather sad film, and equally eerie. For a first film it is quite forceful in terms of its choice of setting, dialogues, screenplay, and cinematography. However, it is obvious in the film that Erdem is involved in a quest, especially where it comes to editing. Nevertheless, in this film we gather the first hints that he would use traumatic characters in his later films for which he again wrote the screenplay himself, just as he did in Oh, Moon! Following Oh, Moon! Erdem began his advertisement career, together with his old friend Ömür Atay.” – Murat Emir Eren