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Sivas

Sivas

Movie · 2014 · 14 people

Kaan Müjdeci made his feature debut with Sivas, a Turkish-German drama he also wrote. Venice gave it the Special Jury Prize: picked for the main competition of the 71st Venice International Film Festival, it had vied for the Golden Lion. Released in Turkish cinemas on October 31, 2014, and running about 97 minutes, it later became Turkey's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but was left off the nominee list.

The story follows Aslan, an eleven-year-old in a small village whose days consist of school and time with friends; his biggest worry is his crush on classmate Ayşe. One day his path crosses one of the dog fights often held in the village, where he meets Sivas, an abandoned Kangal who has lost the fight and collapsed wounded. The encounter becomes a turning point in his life. Through a boy and the dog he adopts, the film examines the responsibilities and obligations of being a child and a man in Anatolia.

Doğan İzci plays Aslan, joined by the dog Çakır. Muttalip Müjdeci, Hasan Özdemir, Ezgi Ergin and Furkan Uyar make their acting debuts, alongside the professionals Ozan Çelik, Banu Fotocan and Okan Avcı. Yasin Müjdeci produced it.

DirectorKaan Müjdeci
Sivas Sivas

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Cast

Okan Avcı Okan Avcı Actor · 41 years old Doğan İzci Çakır Ozan Çelik Muttalip Müjdeci Hasan Özdemir Ezgi Ergin Furkan Uyar Banu Fotocan Hakan Yazılıtaş Muharrem Ayan Yasin Yazılıtaş Hacı Çelik Mustafa Müjdeci

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Through different eyes

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

Don't mistake it for a family film just because it is about a boy and a dog. The story runs through the village dog fights, and at its centre is a dog wounded in one. For children who love animals those scenes can be deeply upsetting. It is not suitable for young kids. Older teens should watch it only with an adult and talk it over afterwards. For adults it is a hard but honest, thought-provoking film.

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

Sivas is not really about dog fighting; it is about where and how a boy in Anatolia learns to be a man. In eleven-year-old Aslan's world, affection, rivalry, displays of strength and possession are bound together, and the village fights work as a public stage for those values. The film neither glorifies this culture nor judges it from outside; it shows how a child takes his share of it. Local performers in front of a camera for the first time lend that observation authenticity. Still, in my view the film leaves much of the interpretation to the viewer, and the social backdrop at times remains mere scenery.

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

The most striking choice in Müjdeci's debut is putting professionals, first-time performers and a dog in the same frame. The result sits closer to observational cinema than to scripted drama: the bond between Doğan İzci and Çakır is built through looks and bodies rather than dialogue. The Special Jury Prize at Venice reads as a reward for that nerve. The same raw approach has a price, though. The plot is quite thin, and some scenes drift without tying into any clear dramatic direction, leaving the character's inner life partly to the viewer's guesswork. Even so, the consistency of its film language shows remarkable maturity for a first feature.

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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