Film takes a haunting look at arranged marriages

‘Lal Gece’ (Night of Silence), director and writer Reis Çelik’s Crystal Bear winner in this year’s Berlinale, hits theaters this week. Most of the story taking place in the bridal chamber, the film is a haunting look at arranged marriages in Turkey. ‘Lal Gece’ is a one of many in a string of Turkish films on arranged marriages

A young adolescent girl locked in a room to have sex against her will with a much older man would be the definition of rape in many countries. Yet in some parts of rural Turkey it is merely standard procedure for a traditional arranged marriage.

Reis Çelik’s latest feature and Crystal Bear winner in this year’s Berlin International Film Festival Lal Gece (Night of Silence) follows a traditional arranged wedding in which the 60-something-year old groom is sent off to the bridal chamber with his 14-year-old bride to consummate the marriage by sunrise the next day.

The marriage is an arrangement to end the blood feud between two families and the groom, played by veteran actor İlyas Salman, has spent most of his life in prison for the murder, done as an honor killing, of his mother. The film’s director and writer Çelik layers in a look at another patriarchal tradition accepted in certain rural parts of Turkey with the addition of the groom’s honor killing to the plot. The young bride, played by newcomer Dilan Aksüt, is a fresh-faced teenager under her bright red wedding veil.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)