My best friend, or the abuse of the innocent

The said It’s true even if you don’t believe can fit perfectly My bestfriendthe film by director Ferit Karahan awarded to berlin festival with honors of FIPRESCI.

The film is based on the director’s personal experiences at a boarding school for Kurdish children in Turkey. The fiction focuses on Yusuf (Samet Yildiz), a boy who is like a guardian angel or, more earthly speaking, the guardian of a fellow student at the boarding school, who wakes up one morning almost unconscious.

The boy, Memo (Nurullah Alaca), has no fever, but cannot move. This is how they brought him to what we can define as the infirmary, where there was nothing but aspirin. The cold and snow also did not help, the heating pipes were broken, the area had long needed repair services, but the most serious was the situation of the small.

The film, from that moment of uncertainty, when the child does not react, begins to retrace down a path of investigation, which is what teachers do to really find out what happened.

In the beginning we saw, in a form of fierce authoritarianism, how some boys end up taking a cold water bath — they take a bath once a week—, which is in the middle of winter. But it is not only the teacher who mistreats them who carries the guilt in the establishment. There have been allegations of corruption, such as the director, in the blink of an eye or because he is taking advantage of someone with a car who is taking him from town.

But the route is impassable if you don’t have chains to put on the wheels, and the Memo has to be moved right away to some hospital, from some of that place, in the middle of the mountains.

Tension, camera in hand

The director uses the camera in hand to accompany Yusuf, and generates more tension causing Memo not to respond, and the ambulance they are requesting is also not coming.

The film then revolves around some axes, not only authoritarianism and cruelty, but also shame, educational oppression and corruption. And if it’s not clear what time is being said, it’s even a management decision: it could have happened 30 years ago, or be completely contemporary.

Although there are adult character stereotypes, the “message” is clear, the production is powerful, and everything becomes an argument that leads one to imagine the human condition and abuse.

What yes, take a good look at the rooms and the times in which it is shown, because they are few and far between.

“My bestfriend”

Very good

Drama. Turkey/Romania, 2021. Original title: Tirasi School. 84 ‘, SAM 13R. Ng: Ferit Karahan. may: Samet Yildiz, Nurullah Alaca, Ekin Koc. Rooms: Cinemark Palermo, Cinépolis Recoleta, Showcase Belgrano and Norcenter.