Vassilis Kroustallis reviews the Turkish/German/US Istanbul drama, When I'm Done Dying by Nisan Dağ.
A certain urgency and a certain calmness permeate the representation of a fictional Istanbul slum, called 'Karacinar' in Turkish writer-director Nisan Dağ's sophomore feature (her debut feature Across the Sea appeared in 2015, co-directed with Esra Saydam).
Starting her film career with both animation and documentary roots, Nisan Dağ employs both to showcase a young hip-hop culture in a very impoverished Istanbul neighborhood (with a high crime rate) and to set up the fictional means for at least some of the characters' salvation.
Fehmi (a really persuasive Oktay Çubuk) is a talented 19-year-old rapper addicted to the cheap drug bonzai; he lives with his father, and shares a part-time job with his closeted gay brother; his failure to meet his job's duties is matched by his talent and willingness to be 'one of the boys'. He dreams of becoming big in a community of friends that adores Tupac and Nicki Minaj. He is both rebellious and religious, considerate and uncaring, easy-going and impossible.
When Fehmi meets the 25-year-old DJ Devin (Hayal Köseoğlu), he decides to take a less-traveled path into the upper-class neighborhood. Dağ mostly states rather than investigates class differences in the film; in the end, it becomes a rehearsed yet fresh story of an addict and his partner, familiar to cinemagoers since Preminger's The Man With the Golden Arm (1957).
Fermi as the central character and his own fragility is the best thing in a film which still wants to investigate the story of a whole neighborhood, but its running time and central story makes it almost impossible; Da Poet's rap and Dhash and Aytug Tunal/Hayki lyrics make up for an edgy youth statement, while cinematography alternates between elevating marvelous Istanbul sunset viewed from a terrace and accompanying its subjects in less serene locations.
In many ways, the narrative trajectory leaves ample space for Fermi to both fall and rise again. The animation sequences (by KIM & HIM), on the other hand, add a more intense level of addiction.
'When I'm done dying' definitely wants to cast the power of music in a positive light, telling things that the conservative environment either forbids or simply neglects. It does well by not focusing on being a famed career freak; its love story is engaging but not particular enough to hold the film in its shoulders. It's Fermi himself, as a central force of indecision, who gives the films and their surroundings an energetic and rewarding turn.
CREDITS
When I'm Done Dying (Bir Nefes Daha , Turkey/ Germany/ USA, 2020)
Cast: Oktay Çubuk, Hayal Köseoğlu, Ushan Çakir | Producer:Muge Ozen, Jessica Caldwell, Jim Wareck, Yagmur Unal, Kanat Dogramaci, Dorothe Beinemeier | DoP:John Wakayama Carey | Editor:Kristen Swanbeck, Özcan Vardar
World Sales: Magnolia Pictures International
- The film had its world premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2020
