Dan Fainaru. Destiny. Screen Daily. Review.

Destiny (Kader)

International film festivals should have another look at Zeki Demirkubuz’ latest offering Destiny, which has been on the circuit since last year. Flawed it may be, but it has enough merit to deserve a niche of its own, certainly compared to some of the selections inflicted lately by a number of programmers on their unsuspecting audiences.

Cut down from a much longer version to its present length, and uneasily bearing the traces of these edits, this tale of an obsessive, unrequited love which draws all its characters to perdition, grows on audiences if they are willing to go along for the ride, becoming more oppressively disturbing as it reaches towards its inevitable conclusion.

The screen is monopolised by Ufuk Bayraktar, who collected an acting award at the recent Istanbul International Film Festival as a man who is willing to sacrifice everything for the woman he loves; and Vildar Atasever, as the object of his attentions. But it is the insistence of Demirkubuz (Best Director at Istanbul), who focuses on them to the gradual eliminates of all else in the frame, which gives the film its strength.

Arthouses and film festivals should pay attention, although they should not confuse this feature with Demirkubuz’s earlier Fate, despite the deceptively similar title.
A minimalist by nature, who systematically purges all but the essential details, Demirkubuz devises his film as a series of long, harrowing sequences, tracing a process which starts with innocent hopefulness, proceeds into strife and struggle and ends in a dejected acceptance of passions that will never be satisfied…

Dan Fainaru. Screen Daily. April 25, 2007. 

Excerpt.