Dry Summer (Susuz Yaz) (1964)
RESTORED VERSION
Directed by: Metin Erksan
Runtime: 75 minutes
Country: Turkey
Language: Turkish with English subtitles
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References)
Full Synopsis
Dry Summer, a village story whose source is the struggle over land and water, is one of the most stunning examples of the clash between good and evil in Turkish Cinema. Repeating the success he achieved with The Revenge of the Snakes, a Fakir Baykurt adaptation shot in 1962, Metin Erksan’s Dry Summer shows the confrontation between two brothers, Osman and Hassan. Osman surrounds the water that springs from their lands with barriers to prevent the village from using it. A moral man, Hassan argues that the others should also use the water. After confessing to a murder actually committed by his brother, Hassan is convicted and sent to jail. Once released, he learns that Osman used deception to take away his wife and marry her during his imprisonment. Hasan loses control. In the ensuing fight between the brothers, he drowns Osman in the water and then clears away the barriers.
About the Director
Metin Erksan was born in Çanakkale, Turkey, in 1929. He studied History of Art at the Istanbul University and started very early on in life collaborating as film critic in several newspapers and magazines. In 1952 he shot his first film The Life of Poet Veysel written by Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu. He directed social realistic films such as Beyond the Nights (1960) and The Revenge of the Snakes (1962), forming his own style in later works like Dry Summer (1964) and Time to Love (1965).
In 1964, Metin Erksan won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival with Susuz Yaz, other awards came from the Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia for Yılanların Öcü (1962) and the first edition of International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival for Kuyu (1968). From 1970 on he directed several films for television.
Metin Erksan was a prolific filmmaker, directing 42 titles, 29 of which were based on his own scripts. He was highly recognized by his contemporaries and fellow filmmakers as well as by the international film community abroad.
He passed away on August, 2012 at the age of 83, in Bakırköy, Istanbul.
Restoration Notes
The restoration of Susuz Yaz used the original 35mm camera negative and the original 17.5 mm sound negative and recaptured the black and white film’s tonal nuances. The film’s producer, Ulvi Dogan, provided the prints.
An interpositive preserved at the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung in Wiesbaden was used for the negative’s last missing reel. The opening and closing credits, missing from all available sources, have been digitally reconstructed.
Restored by the World Cinema Project at Cineteca di Bologna/ L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in May 2008.
(Information provided by the World Cinema Project)
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