Biyograficim
The Gap (Ara)

The Gap (Ara) (translated)

Movie · 2007 · 5 people

Ümit Ünal wrote and directed the Turkish drama Ara. Running 89 minutes, it follows four people who love and betray one another and still cannot let go. The leads are Erdem Akakçe, Betül Çobanoğlu, Serhat Tutumluer and Selen Uçer, all originally stage actors. Sources date the film to either 2007 or 2008.

The story stretches over roughly ten years and centers on two urban, middle-class couples: Veli and Selda, and Veli's business partner Ender and Gül. Selda is involved with Ender, while Gül and Veli are involved outside marriage as well. As friendship, desire and betrayal tangle, each of the four searches for a place in society, against the economic and cultural turbulence of Turkey's previous two decades.

The whole story unfolds in one apartment in Kuledibi, in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district, an 80-square-metre flat where the film was shot entirely on digital. Because the apartment is also rented out for music videos, commercials and TV series, traces of those shoots seep into the images and the decor keeps changing, so the passing of a decade can be felt on screen. In Turkish, ara means "between", "gap" or "distance", and the title points to the characters' in-betweenness in society and in their own relationships.

DirectorÜmit Ünal
The Gap (Ara) The Gap (Ara)

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Cast

Betül Çobanoğlu Betül Çobanoğlu Actor · 52 years old Selen Uçer Selen Uçer Actor · 43 years old Gül Serhat Tutumluer Serhat Tutumluer Actor · 54 years old Veli Suna Selen Actor · 87 years old Grandma Erdem Akakçe Erdem Akakçe Actor · born 1976 Ender

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Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Ümit Ünal's Ara is a bold experiment that turns unity of place from a constraint into the main engine of the story. A tale spanning ten years unfolds in a single 80-square-metre flat in Kuledibi, and the passage of time is carried by the changing decor and by traces of the music videos, commercials and TV shoots the flat is rented out for, which seep into the film. Combined with the flexibility of digital shooting, the idea gives the film an almost documentary texture. The four stage-trained actors make the relationships grinding against each other in a cramped space believable. Its weakness is that the pattern of betrayal sometimes repeats itself; even at 89 minutes, some stretches feel as if they are marking time.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

While telling of two urban middle-class couples swinging between friendship, desire and betrayal, Ara lets you feel Turkey's recent economic and cultural turbulence in the background. The changing decor of a single Beyoğlu flat over ten years works like a small mirror of the city's and the middle class's shifting tastes. The way the commercials and TV shoots rented into the flat seep into the film also prompts thoughts on how private lives become entangled with media and consumer culture. The in-betweenness in the title can be read as a summary not just of four characters but perhaps of a generation's place in society.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

Let me be honest: this is not my kind of film. The whole story takes place in one flat, so most of it inevitably moves forward through talk. There is betrayal and jealousy, but do not expect explosions or chases. Still, four people squeezed into the same home does create its own kind of pressure. Maybe for a quiet evening; if you want fast pacing, pick another film.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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