Sicak (2008) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

TURKEY 2008
Director: Abdullah Oguz
Cast: Ebru Akel, Hazim Körmükçü, Cem Özer, Gürgen Öz, Adrian Cem, Asli Zen, Burak Tamdogan
Rating: -
Language: Turkish
Release Date: 19 December 2008
Running Time: 1 hour 56 minutes

The Movie Review

Sicak film still 1


SICAK
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Concealing your sin with another sin, shielding your guilt with another guilt and covering up your lies with another lies, that's the authentic circle of doom. A premise that'll never be old in the movie realm. And this time it's coming from Turkey, a drama film based on a novel released in 2008, Sicak.

Yusuf (Hazim Körmükçü) and his wife, Meryem (Ebru Akel) are going to a beautiful island in Turkey called Bozcaada to supervise a sunken ship wreck lifting. It's a mundane routine job in a mundane (but very beautiful) island. At first, Yusuf and Meryem think that it's just gonna be that same old day, but suddenly in the middle of the night pouring with heavy rain, something unthinkable happens, something that'll change their life forever. And now only on their first day on the island, they have to do everything as planned and as normal as they can be. But could they go on with their life with this secret? Meanwhile on that island there's a soldier, Adem (Gürgen Öz) who's looking forward to go home as soon as he can and there's also an old diver named Niko (Cem Özer) who lives a secluded life near the dock. The fate will intertwine them together, will it be something good or something disastrous?

For a movie that uses a truly old premise, Sicak is still very watchable. It's even intriguing if you have never encounter a movie like this before. Good thing is Sicak has a well-rounded cast who every one of them performs brilliantly. Like I said before the story is pretty much very easy to guess and the dialogue is so-so but we could really feel the intensity and the emotion coming from them. The editing could be perfected more since sometimes it's a bit dragging, but this dragging scenes are covered up by the cinematography, the Island is beautiful, typical of Greek islands (probably Turkish too?). Below is spoiler section to give you a bit further info of what Sicak is all about.

--Start of Spoiler Possibility Alert--
Yusuf accidentally hits a man with his car on that night. Confused and scared, he insists on burying the man on the site. Meryem who's still in great shock (excellent acting here) is just going along with her husband's decision. They also decide to bring the dead man's phone with them. The phone is constantly ringing from the dead man's friend who concerns of his whereabouts. While Yusuf could seemingly deal with this relatively-to-Meryem just fine, the incident drives Meryem crazy. Could they hide this lie with another lie? It's heart over mind or mind over heart? A scene where Yusuf walks alone and unintentionally hears an Imam's khutbah (preach) seemingly from Al Qur'an (the Koran) shows excellent camerawork technique of Abdullah Oguz.
--End of Spoiler Possibility Alert--

The biggest flaw is that the characters are too ordinary, they couldn't make us either root for them or hate them. I think for most moviegoers, this Turkish drama would feel only like a showcase of the actors/actresses' acting capacity and the beauty of Bozcaada. If you have seen and enjoyed the like of Very Bad Things (1998), although similar but Sicak is inferior to that movie so probably Sicak would bore you. Sicak is absolutely not a bad movie, mediocre at best. Recommended for those seeking for drama movie set on an island.