About Dry Grasses: Self-Honesty

About Dry Grasses, the latest film by the Turkish Director, Ceylan, who builds his own cinema step by step, offers us 3 hours full of art. Our director plays with the audience’s empathy norms perfectly and conveys to us a sensitive subject through the norms of a very sensitive geography.

Anyone who reads the plot of the film may think that they will watch mainly the story of a teacher accused of pedophilia, but the director uses this subject only as a tool. This issue perhaps creates a trauma in our teacher, Samet, who is not happy with his life, and provides him an opportunity to vent his anger. However, he is not the only character whose two faces we see in the movie. Almost every character we follow breaks his own principles quite easily for his own interests. Moreover, our characters are exposed to all the institutions of modernism, but we can easily observe that they all fail.

Even though we observe only a rural and relatively underdeveloped village, we are also exposed to clear criticisms about the Turkish Education System. I think the reason why children get bored of drawing the countryside and want to draw the sun-sea is because they are tired of the harsh conditions they are in and want to relax at least while painting. However, Samet is taking the chance of “leaving the world behind by the power of art” from his students. Moreover, right after our…