Yellow Letters

Derya and Aziz, a successful theatre couple based in Ankara, are celebrating the premiere of their latest play when they find themselves targeted by censorious state investigations. Practically overnight, their lives are upended: they’re pushed out of their jobs and home and forced to relocate to Istanbul to live with Aziz’s mother. Confronted with dwindling finances, the couple do their best to raise their teen daughter, Ezgi, but as political and personal pressures mount, their convictions are put to the test.

Winner of this year’s Golden Bear, Yellow Letters is the latest dramatic firestorm from acclaimed writer-director İlker Çatak (The Teachers’ Lounge). Although the film is set in Turkey, title cards boldly declare that it was shot entirely in Germany: “Berlin as Ankara,” “Hamburg as Istanbul.” No mere exercise in Brechtian alienation, the decision highlights the film’s boldly subversive political intentions — a reminder that state censorship is not only a very real threat, but that it can happen anywhere.

Compelling… anchored by two brilliant performances.

Indiewire

Very much a story for our times. Heartbreaking.

Stephen A Russell, Time Out