Burning Days

If there is ever a Hollywood remake of Burning Days, it could be titled ‘Village Heat’. This is because Emin Alper’s film customises many classic film noir tropes for its own decidedly modern purposes. Prosecutor Emre is a newcomer to the village of Yaniklar in Turkey. His first case, the rape of a local gypsy girl, is complicated by the fact that he himself was its eyewitness at a drunken party – except that a blackout (that great noir device of unconsciousness) has clouded his memory.

The film is densely woven from three plot strands: the rape; a local political battle involving water management and deadly sinkholes in the earth (reminiscent of the public intrigue in Chinatown from 1974); and, last but not least, an intimate question involving Emre’s own sexuality – and the extent of his willingness to acknowledge it. These threads are seemingly separate until events pull them together in surprising ways. Traditional noir elements – such as the paranoia of a stranger who is faced with the disquieting, sometimes violent rituals of a tightly-knit community – are evoked not only for the sake of an atmosphere of dread, but also to address the political reality of the ‘mob mentality’ in today’s world.

– Adrian Martin

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