Times and Winds

Times and Winds, 2006

Turkey, 35mm, Color, 110’
Cast: Özkan Özen, Ali Bey Kayalı, Elit İşcan, Bülent Emin Yarar, Taner Birsel, Selma Ergeç

Times and Windsis set in a small, poor village leaning over high rock mountains, facing an immense sea, and flanked by olive groves. Days are divided into five sections by the call to prayer. All daily human actions are lived through within these five slices of time. Ömer, Yakup, and Yıldız, three children aged 12-13 who are coming of age, stand out among the other inhabitants of the village in this film, itself divided into five sections.

“Times and Winds, as its Turkish name “Five Times a Day” implies, is based on a cyclical concept of time, divided so as to ‘regulate everyday life.’ The film begins with the Isha prayer at night and ends with the morning prayer, Fajr. And by choosing to ‘end’ on the morning of a day it thus leaves a mark as to the continuity outside of the cycle itself. Perhaps because it somehow cannot be ‘adjusted’ to go forward, this continual cycle of night and day sometimes expands from within a moment and sometimes simply freezes. And again, for the same reason, perhaps it is harder for the children of Times and Winds to grow up.” – Senem Aytaç