Kerr: The Kafkaesque Oscar contender from Türkiye

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Türkiye's 2023 Oscar candidate for the category Best International Film ''Kerr'' is in cinemas. The film is an adaption of director Tayfun Pirselimoğlu's own novel, who won the Best Director Award at the 58th Golden Orange Film Festival in Antalya for the movie.

When the main character Can, mainly addressed in the film as 'the tailor's son', returns to his hometown for his father's funeral, he witnesses a murder at the train station. The police do not allow him to go after he gives his testimony, and he turns into the prime suspect.

In a Kafkaesque way, Can continues to have odd encounters. For example, the nurse who cared for his sick father turns out to be the ex-wife of the murdered man. As the woman makes a big impression on Can throughout the film, he tries to reach her and find out her name.

Holes, depths and quirks

The plot continues bizarrely, as the village starts to suspect that Can committed the murder and he has to convince everyone that he did not. Later in the movie, we find that neither there was a body nor a murder. Furthermore, the village gets struck by rabid dogs, and strange holes start to appear in his house and the city.

The character gets confused, so does the audience. ''What do you say to what is going in the country'' This question is frequently asked by its characters throughout the movie. The movie shows the void of the character, through the repetition of this question in successive scenes, together with the strange appearance of a hole in the character's house, which represents the character's emptiness.

The main character seems to be a witness of the story, that is filled with ordinary and unordinary encounters, whereby it does not matter what he witnesses, as everything seems to have a disturbing element.

Missing parts

Pirselimoğlu again shows his competence in directing with Kerr. He develops a particular atmosphere, not only through its use or non-use of music, but mainly through its repetitive structure. The film lives up to its title ''Kerr,'' which means "repetition."

Pirselimoğlu tries to recreate the structure of his 2014 book in the film, which is also the movie's most significant issue. As parts of the book seem to miss, the character on screen lacks the depth and details of the book. (ED/MW/VK)