Night of Silence

Turkish writer/director Reis Celik draws inspiration from the spare style of Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once upon a Time in Anatolia) for this intriguing update of the Arabian Nights legend of Scheherazade. Coerced into an arranged marriage to end a blood feud, 14-year-old Dilan Aksut is dismayed to find her groom is an unprepossessing middle-aged man (Ilyas Salman). He has recently been released from jail after murdering his mother and a clan foe, and feels humiliated at being exploited by his kinfolk. Having dwelt with evident fascination on the nuptial rituals, Celik confines the remainder of the action to the bedroom, as Aksut realises that Salman is as reluctant a partner as herself and exploits his timidity, inexperience and resentment to keep him at arm's length. But each knows that proof of their consummation is required, and the ambiguity of how the drama plays out only enhances the fascination of this intimate, intense but always discreet dissection of antiquated patriarchal custom.