''Bliss'' (Turkish: ''Mutluluk'') is a 2007

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

film directed by

Abdullah Oğuz Abdullah Oguz (born 17 June 1958 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a Turkish film director and producer. Oguz studied at Marmara University Marmara University ( Turkish: ''Marmara Üniversitesi'') is a public university in Istanbul, Turkey. The universi ...

, and starring

Özgü Namal Melahat Özgü Namal (born 28 December 1978) is a Turkish actress. Biography Her maternal family are Turkish immigrants from Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire (now in Greece). Her paternal family is Turkish immigrant from Macedonia. Özgü Amel Nama ...

, Talat Bulut, and

Murat Han Murat Han (born 1 May 1975) is a Turkish-American stage and film actor. He is best known for ''Bliss'', ''Vicdan'', ''Ömre bedel'', ''Sensiz Olmaz'' and ''Thophy''. Biography Murat Han is an Ankara-born film and television actor. He attend ...

. It was chosen to open the 2007 Asian Film Festival in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and the 2007 Medfilm Festival in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. It won the audience prize and the young jury prize at the 2008 Turkish Film Festival in Nuremberg and won the audience award for international films at the 2008

Miami International Film Festival The Miami Film Festival (formerly Miami International Film Festival) is an annual film festival in Miami, Florida, that showcases independent American and international films with a special focus on Ibero-American films. The competitive film fest ...

. Also, Mutluluk was rewarded by European Council with the Prix Odyssee Human Rights Award in 2007.

Plot

Meryem (Özgü Namal), a young woman of about 17 years old, is believed to have been violated, and her village's customs call for her to be killed to restore honor and dignity to her family and village. A young, newly returned war veteran and son of the village leader and factory owner, Cemal (

), is ordered to take Meryem to Istanbul and kill her, but at the last minute he doesn't allow himself to complete the task and the two, now unable to ever return to their village, run away together. Eventually, they meet up with ex-Professor Irfan, a man who has decided to live on a boat away from his wife and constricted life. It is turned out that Meryem's uncle was the one that violated her. This caused Simel to be disgusted by the truth. He tried to kill his father but he was unable to. Meryem's father was shocked and enraged that his own brother violated his daughter and wanted his death to avenge the crime, killing his brother with a gun. The film deals with morality as narrowly defined by tradition, in a series of situations in which the characters have to follow untraditional paths against their will. The harshness of existential pain is contrasted with beautiful landscapes by the Director of Photography, Mirsad Herovic. This movie is adapted from the international best selling novel by

Zülfü Livaneli Ömer Zülfü Livaneli (born 20 June 1946), is a Turkish musician, author, poet, and politician. Livaneli was imprisoned several times during the 1971 Turkish coup d'état because of his political views and had to leave Turkey in 1972 and went ...

Cast

- Meryem *

Talat Bulut Talat Bulut (born 23 March 1956) is a Turkish actor. He has appeared in more than twenty films since 1980. Selected filmography References External links * 1956 births Living people Turkish male film actors {{Turkey-actor- ...

- İrfan *

- Cemal *

Lale Mansur Lale Mansur (née Yurdatapan; born 1956) is a Turkish actress. She has appeared in more than twenty films since 1988. Selected filmography References External links * 1956 births Living people Turkish former Muslims Turkish agnos ...

- İrfan's wife *

Mustafa Avkıran Mustafa Avkıran (born 3 March 1963) is a Turkish actor. Avkıran graduated from Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory in 1983. He then joined the cast of Istanbul State Theatre. Eventually he received his master's degree from Mimar Sinan Uni ...

- Ali Riza * - Tahsin *

Meral Çetinkaya Meral Onuktav Çetinkaya (born 5 March 1945) is a Turkish film actress. She has appeared in more than twenty films since 1962. Filmography References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cetinkaya, Meral 1945 births Living people People ...

- Münevver

Reception

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 61% based on 23 reviews, and an average rating of 6.5/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* {{end Turkish drama films Films with screenplays by Zülfü Livaneli 2007 films Films set in Turkey Films based on Turkish novels