Bal - Honey - Bora Altas

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka 'Honey')

Directed by Semih Kaplanoglu
Turkey 2010

In the third and final instalment of director Semih Kaplanoglu's award-winning trilogy, Yusuf is an only child who lives with his parents in an isolated mountain area. For the young boy, the surrounding forest becomes a place of mystery and adventure when accompanying his beekeeper father on the job. The strong bond between father and son cannot protect the stuttering child from becoming an outsider during his first year of school. Yusuf's anxieties escalate when his father must travel to a faraway forest on a risky mission. With his father gone, Yusuf slips into silence to the distress of his pretty young mother Zehra. With his father now missing for days and his mother falling into a deep depression, the boy summons all of his courage and goes deep into the forest to search for his father.

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Theatrical Release: February 11th, 2010 - Berlin Film Festival

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DVD Review: Olive Films - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Olive Films - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:40:27
Video	1.78:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.29 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	Turkish (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English (burned-in)
Features	Release Information: Studio: Olive Films Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Edition Details: • none DVD Release Date: September 20th, 2011 Keep Case Chapters: 8

The three films of the Yusuf Trilogy, Yumutra (Egg), Sut (Milk) and Bal (Honey) as available from Olive Films.

Comments:

Bal is the third film of the 'Yusuf Trilogy' which comprises, Yumutra (Egg), Sut (Milk) and Bal (Honey) as available on DVD from Olive Films. These are simple, touching humanist dramas. They focus on social and economic changes in the Anatolian provinces of Eastern Turkey dealing primarily with the dynamics of complex mother-son relationships through the protagonist, Yusuf.

This is a dual-layered, anamorphic transfer that looks quite presentable for the SD format. Colors are strong and detail acceptable. Unfortunately, again, it is interlaced (see 'combing' in last capture) but luckily it is not as readily noticeable even via an HD system viewing as we have seen from similar transfers in the past. I found myself quite wrapped up in Bal despite the transfer limitations. I'd love to re-watch this whole trilogy in 1080P from excellent sources - although it may never transpire.

Audio is clear and consistent and the burned-in subtitles seem well translated, but there are no extras at all on the region 1 NTSC disc.

I enjoyed Bal the most of the trilogy. In fact the films seemed to improve in many areas as we rolled along. The filmmaking seemed a little more assured and while nothing is really 'pulled-together' in terms of the character Yusuf - it does imprint on you emotionally. We encourage world cinema fans to view these three films whenever they can and the separate Olive DVDs seem like one of the only viable avenues at present.