Sedat (Ercan Upset) sits across two investigators for a disciplinary hearing. He didn’t have to be in trouble, but he could, depending on what happened today, they told him. A video camera documents the exchange.
We then return indefinitely to scenes that Sedat didn’t know because he wasn’t there. Even though he knew about those moments in retrospect and could share them in the name of a nice linear delay.
Even though it was an intimate moment of nothing. To do with the investigation? However. He was a correctional officer who was supposed to accompany an inmate on a one-day vacation. The concert was part of Sedat’s plans to visit his daughter from Italy; he wasn’t happy about it, but he had no choice but to do as the boss wanted.
Sedat will accompany Musa (Sarp Akkaya):
Yang is allowed to see his daughter Yonka (Aleina Yozgechen) one night. He is 15 years old with an 18-year prison sentence and has not seen him since childhood. The story is sad – his mother dies, his maternal grandparents reject him. And he is sent to Musa Nebahat’s mother (Fusun Demerel).
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Who has severe Alzheimer’s disease. Fortunately, Yonka and Nebahat have Nurie (Songul Oden), a neighbour and old friend who helps them. Musa shared all this with Sedat on the bus to Musa’s hometown. And to be clear, Sedat reported it to the inspector.
Talk about the city. Musa reaches his mother’s house, and he doesn’t recognize her. He appears to be under the control of organized crime attributed to Moses. The boss is Apo (Ali Sekiner Alichi); The Yonka are occasionally harassed by malicious scammers outside the local coffee shop; Moses still has friends in the business. In all respects, this city looks like a poor and hard-to-live city. Whose residents tend to accept the criminal element as an inevitable reality.
Dating a Yonka is awkward, but he finally warms up after sneaking past a sleeping sedative. A violation of his actual temporary release – and walking around town late at night to eat. Musa actually talks about that what will happen in three years. When he finally comes out, and the sad music tells us this might be a dream.
Meanwhile, Moses received unpleasant news from his daughter that he would not visit her; he ignored calls from lenders; he argued with his wife about his imminent retirement and the associated old-age bonuses.
Love Me Instead is an intimate and subtle melodrama with tendencies:
To get tired in more intense moments. Screenwriter and director Mehmet Ada Yoztekin unwisely use humour, blurring events. With an unsettling score and allowing the death scene to drag on until everyone sucks in their breath.
The film lasts over two hours and requires a healthy cut; some scenes look alien while others reflect a few beats beyond their dramatic impact. The hectic pace makes the considerable distortion in the middle more enjoyable than it should be.
But that doesn’t mean the film is cruel. Its two male protagonists grapple with some significant intangible challenges as fathers. The most important of which is the fear of losing your daughter in a dangerous and seductive world.
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Oztekin also takes advantage of the harsh scrabble setting and creates an atmosphere with a bit of careful cinematography. But once the plot gets hot, good character construction stops the cast for a raw soap opera. There’s an excellent reflective study of the characters in this film somewhere. But Oztekin doesn’t pull them out of the rubble. Love Me has moments instead – and they’re pretty good! – but in the end, it’s not entirely worth the watch.