24 March 2011
A Son’s Quest, With Nature as a Guide
Andy Webster / The New York Times

It’s the rare director who can imbue the outdoors with a soul of its own. Sure, John Ford made Monument Valley, in Utah, an indispensable co-star for John Wayne. But Nicolas Roeg, in 1971, made the Australian outback almost sentient in “Walkabout.” With “Bal” (“Honey”), the Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu enables the lush mountain forests of Rize Province, near the Black Sea, to express what its young protagonist cannot. Yusuf (Bora Altas), an elementary-school student, struggles with a stammer; oral readings in class are such an ordeal that he remains indoors at recess. An overheard passage of Rimbaud read aloud in a classroom gives him a glimmer of the poetic eloquence he can phpire to.

He is far more comfortable while watching his adored father, Yakup (Erdal Besikcioglu), a beekeeper, at work, despite the peril involved: the honey Yakup cultivates requires the suspension of hives from tree branches at dangerous heights. Now the bees are dying out, threatened by encroaching pollution, and Yakup must seek better terrain far away. When he doesn’t return from such a mission, Yusuf’s mother, Zehra (Tulin Ozen), her child in tow, embarks on a journey to find him.

Soon we discover what is also at stake: a way of life, captured in stunning images. Farmhouse interiors are still-life compositions of exquisite contrast; women harvesting in a field evoke a Millet tableau. And the forests throb with animus, blanketed in an enchanted fog. They beckon to Yusuf, who enters, guided by his father’s companion hawk.

Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2010 and Turkey’s entry for best foreign-language film at the Oscars this year, the semi-autobiographical “Bal” is the third in a trilogy about Yusuf. It has no musical soundtrack (and barely any dialogue), only a quiet, unforced, organic rhythm. And those spellbinding images. Like the viewer, Mr. Kaplanoglu is quite happy to let nature do the talking and cast a lyrical, mysterious spell.