Teachers are people, too. Ishak (Mücahit Koçak), is serving in Anatolia as a teacher–and he’s finding it difficult to balance his work life and his personal life. As he struggles with divorce and a custody battle, Ishak must also deal with his students, both the successful and troubled ones. The Moisture is his story, depicting a world in which everyone struggles, regardless of the position you hold.
The Moisture is a tad convoluted and it takes a bit of digging to figure out what exactly is going on. Viewers get small glimpses into the life of Ishak, just pieces of fractured conversation–but the reality is that much of the film is left up to viewers’ imagination. It’s made clear, time and time again, that something bad is happening–but what that thing is doesn’t always show itself to viewers. A missing girl, a devious student, a heinous stench–but not everything is made abundantly clear throughout the course of The Moisture. It’s nice to have to read between the lines, to have to play detective for a bit while the film drives forward. By making viewers active participants in the story, by almost forcing them to read between the lines and figure out what the heck is going on, Director Turan Haste effectively pulls them into the film and allows them to appreciate the content even more than if they had been spoon fed.
The film is interestingly paced. While it moves slowly, effectively developing all that it wants to, by the time The Moisture concludes it feels like it’s been only just a few minutes. Sure, the film is only twenty minutes long, but it feels significantly shorter than that. There is a lot of information present in the film–and just about all of it is exposition, slowly developing the handful of characters that exist throughout, but somehow it works. I believe that this works as a result of Haste and his team not giving us too much information. While there is much to be dissected, we are never force fed anything, never given an abundance of information–and that allows the pacing of the film to work in The Moisture’s favor.
Ishak is a dynamic character, one that manages to reach corners of humankind that don’t always seem like they should exist together. He’s both docile and aggressive, passionate and reserved–and the abundance of characteristics that Ishak possesses in The Moisture opens him up to viewers and allows a range of viewers, from many walks of life, to appreciate who and what he is. Ishak’s character development is the most important aspect of The Moisture. He displays a wide-range of emotions, emotions that not only emanate from the page and screen–but directly from Koçak. He’s brilliant in his performance, effectively bringing him to life from beginning to end.
The Moisture explores a unique part of humanity, one in which viewers are able to see all corners of human life. The film runs the gamut of emotion, and not a minute passes that viewers aren’t able to see an abundance of different emotions and relevant characteristics present in the film. The Moisture is a far-reaching mystery that will cause you to think long after it has concluded.
Directed by Turan Haste.
Written by M. Furkan Dasbilek.
Starring Mücahit Koçak, Okan Selvi, Muhammed Mayda, Elif Eylul Yesilyurt, Baran Salman, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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