Summary : When Hasan learns that an electricity pylon will be installed on the land he cultivates, he maneuvers so that his field is spared. But before going on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he promises his wife to make up for her past mistakes.
Critical : Fortunately, the ecological question is increasingly entering cinema screens. This time, she invites herself into the intimacy of a family that grows fruit and vegetables day after day, in the midst of landscapes of incredible beauty. If in summer, the rain is rare, on temperate days, the water brings sublime colors to the hills, which allows Hasan to live in a certain luxuriance. But the man is called a tractor afternoon where he treats his plantations. An engineer has taken the unilateral decision to have huge electricity pylons installed in the middle of his land, which is known to be harmful. The animals will not survive this capitalist heresy, and no doubt his family will in turn succumb to terrible diseases. However, the pesticides, the agricultural methods of Hasan himself do not facilitate the care of the planet either. Behind the man devoted to his land, hides an entrepreneur determined to make a fortune, even if it means crushing his loved ones.
- Copyright Kaplan Film/Sinehane
Hasan’s Promises is a film that takes time. The very neat image focuses on filming details of the life of the characters he tells. The colors are bright, very beautiful, as if each shot was thought of as a painting. Semih Kaplanoğlu strives to describe the simple and bucolic existence of peasants through scenes of work or everyday life, where each object, each sound contributes to the poetry of the spaces. But this is not a falsely romantic feature film, extolling the virtues of country life. Hasan’s Promises questions the balance of power that coexists between the holders of power and money and the people. Each character, each institution contributes, whether they like it or not, to the disruption of the world and leads to terrible behavior, borrowed from selfishness and inhumanity. The story shows with both coldness and beauty how everyone can feed on the misery of others to achieve their own goals.
- Copyright Kaplan Film/Sinehane
Hasan’s character occupies a large part of the screen. He is a complex figure, haunted by his desire to bring justice against what he deems to be heresy and his endless desire to be ever richer and more powerful. He is presented as a kind of sinister and touching anti-hero who has fed on the despair of others to enrich himself, ultimately in the manner of these industrialists whose behavior he criticizes. Around his main character, Semih Kaplanoğlu creates a universe where everyone has to deal with their own contradictions, values and individual intentions. In fact, the director offers a universal film which betrays in each of us, our propensity sometimes to build our happiness on the despair of others.
- Copyright Kaplan Film/Sinehane
Hasan’s Promises could fish by its length. In reality, it’s a film that takes the time to unfold the darkness of the human soul through landscapes, everyday scenes, objects, harvests and dialogues of indisputable beauty. The director of Honey manages to extract from these images, colors and emotions that seem as many invitations for the characters to find redemption and peace within themselves. The spectator must let go of this slow rhythm, which is sometimes interrupted by Hasan’s nightmares. The romantic power of the feature film rises in very neat images, where photography plays admirably between shadows and lights.