A psychological dystopia that wrings existential dilemmas with Almodóvar-like elegance.

What does it mean to live in a society where punishment for crime is the complete deletion of your existence? Director Hatice Aşkın places a visually stunning predicament in front of the viewers, where a steep price must be paid for nine crimes – in addition to the rest of their life, the punished also have to give up the life they have already lived, their memory in the hearts of their close ones.

Alper is about to fulfil his dream of becoming a prosecutor. As a talented employee of the public prosecutor’s office, he has made a considerable contribution to the systematic implementation of the rule of law under which people who have been greedy, lazy, impudent or lavish or have desired, envied, hated or betrayed someone are abolished from society.

Alper’s moral compass is sent cartwheeling on the day when his mother is taken away due to a seemingly unnoticeable mistake, and thus an elusive part of Alper’s inner world is removed. Rule-based clarity becomes an unpredictable labyrinth traversing of which offers psychological thrills as well as deeper food for thought about the value of remembering and memories.

Elise Jagomägi