Actress Derya is the star of Ankara’s main theatre; these days she often stars in works by her husband, Aziz, a widely venerated writer-academic. One day, after the successful premiere of their latest collaboration which happened on an eve of rising social unrest, their closely-knit lives start to unravel: Aziz gets thrown out of university together with several colleagues for reasons dubious, while their play gets cancelled, with Derya being ostracised by the institute’s administrators. And so starts a campaign against the shining twin star of Ankara’s progressive intelligentsia whose impact shakes up not only their professional but also their family life.
On the surface, Yellow Letters is a supreme example of socially engaged realist filmmaking whose strength lies in Çatak’s extraordinary ability to develop scenes which sometimes offer masses of intricate turns that open up new levels of meaning, depth, again and again. But as the idea of having Berlin and Hamburg play Ankara and Istanbul boldly suggests: The film’s foundation is Brecht’ian, with Yellow Letters functioning perfectly as a model that details the workings of authoritarian politics. A true masterpiece of enlightainment!
Olaf Möller