Week theme: The City and the Village in Contemporary Turkish Cinema

Egg (2007; 97 minutes) – Semih Kaplanoğlu 

Yumurta, or Egg, is the first in a trilogy of films by Kaplanoğlu that follow the poet-protagonist, Yusuf, in reverse chronological order through middle-age, adolescence and childhood. Egg narrates Yusuf’s return to his native village from Istanbul after his mother’s death. While he doesn’t intend to stay past the funeral at first, the presence of a distant and unfamiliar relative leads him to remain. Yusuf finds himself on a journey to perform the religious rite his mother could not complete before her death, traveling to a saint’s tomb to perform an animal sacrifice in her stead, facilitating a process of self-questioning and discovery.