The Play (2005)

The Play (2005)

Category: Documentaries

Regions: Middle East

Topics: Women / Gender / Sexuality,   Music / Art / Culture



Ummuye, Behiye, Ummu, Fatma K., Cennet, Saniye, Fatma F., Zeynep and Nesime are nine peasant women living in Arslankoy, a mountain village in southern Turkey. They spend their days working hard in the fields, on the construction site and at home.


To lighten the burden of life, these women come together for a wholly different reason - to write and perform a play based on their own life stories. Gathering at the local high school, which they were shy of even stepping into until that day, they work with the principal, Mr. Huseyin, revealing and confronting the life stories they were afraid even to tell themselves. For days on end, under the curious gazes of the village men, they work tirelessly, discuss and create with much fun a play, "The Outcry of Women!"



This funny and touching documentary is about the development process of this play and the changes the women went through during this period.


"Boisterously insightful, hilarious and socially relevant in equal measure, and the perfect antidote to today’s crop of dryly crusading, good-for-you documentaries. Not to be missed."


                                                                                                                                                                                                                      - New York Magazine


About Doc-Debut

This film originally aired as part of Doc-Debut, a series on Link TV highlighting unique and groundbreaking international documentary films. Each week features the U.S. television premiere of a new foreign doc, offering American audiences unprecedented perspectives on world events and culture, as seen through the eyes of individuals across the globe. The series also provides a unique outlet for films by independent directors and producers to reach a much wider international audience.

   Reviews & Critiques          New York Magazine:    "Boisterously insightful, hilarious and socially relevant in equal measure, and the perfect antidote to today’s crop of dryly crusading, good-for-you documentaries. Not to be missed."        

TimesSquare.com:

   "Enlightening, touching and inspiring."          Ioncinema:    "Very entertaining and helps us understand the issues at 'play'.”                Le Monde:    "A Turkish revelation in San Sebastián: Oyun, by Pelin Esmer, is distinguished by the vigor of the subject and the genius of the personalities. This documentary follows, with much sobriety, the preparation of a theatrical play by a group of Turkish peasant women. They had no right to study, almost all were married by force and suffer the abuse of their spouse, the bullying of their in-laws. The director captures an extraordinary process, which begins with the tales of individual tragedies of each, and ends by the presentation of farce which they finally create. In the course of rehearsals, these timid peasant women become fabulous actresses and develop spontaneously an uncompromising and constructed feminist speech. At first experienced as a hobby, the theatre becomes a question of life or death, which brings them self-respect, respect on behalf of their husband, and an enormous hope for generations to come. In front of the camera, it is a true revolution which took place, peaceful, emotional and dreadfully cheerful."

        Tribeca    The Best New Documentary Filmmaker Award
         Trieste    The Best Documentary Film Award         
        Créteil Women Films    The Best Documentary Film Award
          Navarra Punto de Vista    The Audience Award
          Nürnberg FF Turkey/Germany    The Special Prize Of The Jury
         Vitoria New European Film    The Human Rights Award
          Adana Golden Boll    The In Memoriam Yilmaz Guney Award
         Boston Turkish Films    The Best Documentary Film Award
          Centre Médittérrannéen de Comunication Audiovisuelle
         The Best Mediterranean Documentary Grand Prix, FR3 and Algerian TV Awards
          Turkish Cinema Writers Assoc. Awards    The Special Prize of the Jury  



LInkTV sdtv divx rip
Language Turkish
English sub
Not a dvd rip