Inside (2012)

Directed by: Zeki Demirkubuz
Country: Turkey

Review: Adapted from the novel “Notes from Underground” by Dostoievsky, “Inside” takes us through a dark journey in the life of Muharrem, a restless man tied in his mundane world of pettiness, prostitutes, and loneliness. We can follow his questionable advices and conversations with Turkan, the maid of an elder neighbor who is losing his mind and constantly threatens to fire her; the fantastic speeches and dialogues in the presence of his friends whom he despise, especially Cevat, an awarded writer who he envies and accuses of being a thief of ideas; his eventual relationship with a prostitute he met after got drunk in Cevat’s party; and finally in his secretive world of paranoia, strange desires, and peculiar behaviors, which left me perplexed and intrigued. These uncomfortable situations were depicted in a Kafkian style through brilliantly photographed frames that show how tormented and fastidious was Muharrem’s existence. We could sense the suffering, every time that a close-up from his eyes showed that he had to woke up from turbulent nightmares and face the reality again. The ending unveils an exhausted man who shows to be too fragile and corrupted to recover from his existential pain and solitude. “Inside” is a poignant and devastating character-study, brightly directed by Demirkubuz, and performed with heart and passion by Engin Gunaydin.