Our review of Hasan's Promises: a pilgrimage that does not leave the field

8/2/2022, 11:23:13 AM

CRITICISM – Before a pilgrimage to Mecca, a Turk leaves his orchards to ask his loved ones for forgiveness. But we get lost along the way.

The director respects his subject.

Agriculture being an exercise in slowness, the plot of his film, selected in the Un certain regard category at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021, will take time to hatch.

We are in Turkey.

Hasan walks his tall figure, which one could easily see crowned with a straw hat, between the rows of his orchards.

We can't say that they make him a mogul, that's not it.

At night, a lamp remains lit, the main character makes calculations to be able to pay for a pilgrimage to Mecca and, above all, reviews the remorse he has accumulated in recent months.

Indeed, to avoid the installation of a pylon in his field by a powerful public company, our man preferred to sacrifice the happiness of a neighbor and a superb tree.

The one that housed his childhood memories.

Cardinal sin.