Homeland (Memleket)

Memleket is a Turkish drama film from 2015, directed by Murat Saraçoğlu, who also penned the script.

The story unfolds in a small village near Halfeti and centers on an aging married couple. Because their son and daughter-in-law lie buried in the local cemetery, the two cannot bring themselves to abandon their home, and they carry on their everyday routine while raising the orphaned grandchildren left in their care. Saraçoğlu has framed the picture as a meditation on the feeling of things left unfinished, a sense of orphanhood shared by everyone, and the frailty of people slowly worn down by the passage of time amid lives where faults and transgressions are quietly ignored.

The ensemble features Hikmet Karagöz, Osman Sonant, Şerif Sezer, Melike Zeynep Atış and Mesut Akusta. The production picked up a sound design award at the Ankara International Film Festival.