Tales from Kars (1985) poster
1985 · drama · poverty · istanbul

Tales from Kars

Directed by Zehra Derya Koç, Özcan Alper, Emre Akay, Ülkü Oktay, Ahu Öztürk1h 21m1985
ElsewhereIMDb6.1138TMDB6.01
  • sombre
  • measured
Movie DNA

Sombre, measured, measured drama / poverty, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Omnibus of five short films that were shot in the Turkish province of Kars, on the border with Armenia. Among the five directors are three debutants who were chosen to film their stories after winning a scenario contest. The final result is a sympathetic collection of films that remain small and simple: the puppy love between a boy and a girl on their winter trip to school, the memories of a young woman about her mother's response to her first menstruation and bra, and the story of a student who returns to his village, but all too soon flees again for the past that is waiting for him there. The stories take place strikingly often around the cemetery and look at things from the past being revealed. The last contribution to the omnibus film is also significantly called ‘a small truth’.

Our read · Tales from Kars (1985) reads as a sombre, measured, grounded drama · poverty · istanbul entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Tales from Kars

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want simple Turkish regional shorts about everyday people and first love.

ends warmyou’ll be fine aftersteady all the waygrips by minute 8attention 2/5breezes bysubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightSkip if anthology format or small-scale stories won't hold you.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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