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By: tiffreviews
Variety.com - Second leg in the “Yusuf trilogy” by Turkish auteur Semih Kaplanoglu, “Milk” is a notch more watchable than the first, “Egg,” largely thanks to a dignified performance by well-known actress Basak Koklukaya (”A Touch of Spice”) as the teen protag’s mom. But this story of a withdrawn wannabe poet, conflicted over his own and his mother’s future, is still mighty thin material stretched over 102 minutes, and with a directorial self-importance the content simply doesn’t merit. Fests and the minimalist crowd will lap this up, but not many theater bookers.
Middle seg of the “Honey, Milk and Egg” trilogy — which Kaplanoglu is, of course, making in reverse order —shows Yusuf Guner (Melih Selcuk) as a high-school grad in his hometown somewhere in Anatolia. (Like “Egg,” the pic was actually shot around Tire.) Extremely slow first 40 minutes, in which every shot is extended to twice its necessary length, draws the everyday tedium of life on the family milk farm, Yusuf’s attempts to get his poems published, and the patience of his mom, Zehra (Koklukaya, discreetly aged), in putting up with his impractical, poetic nature.
Though dialogue remains at a minimum, things gradually start to change when Yusuf suspects his still-attractive, widowed mother is having an affair with the local station master (Serif Erol). And when Yusuf is called up for military service, and travels to Izmir for his physical, he meets a girl, Semra (Saadet Isil Aksoy, the granddaughter in “Egg”), of a similarly poetic bent… [Full Story]
