Director: Eren Ozsan
Grief pushes a mother toward a forbidden ritual in "Kayikci," a 2025 Turkish drama that folds mystery and speculative elements into a story of loss.
What is Kayikci about?
A mother, unable to accept the loss of her child, travels to an isolated location and enlists a young mystic to help her attempt something well outside ordinary belief. What starts as a private, desperate act of mourning quickly becomes something stranger once the ritual is underway, as the line between the world she knows and something unexplained begins to blur. The remote setting isolates the two characters from outside help or interference, letting the consequences of their choice unfold with no easy way back. Rather than moving toward a conventional resolution, the film lets dread accumulate through mood and implication, tracking how far grief can push someone before the cost becomes impossible to ignore.
Cast & crew
The film stars Mehmet Erdem, Müge Esmeray, Defne Obuter, and Doğukan Töngel, under the direction of Eren Ozsan.
Context & significance
Turkish genre filmmaking has increasingly blended regional folklore with mystery and speculative storytelling, moving away from strictly realist drama toward stories where the supernatural sits alongside grief and family trauma. "Kayikci" fits that broader trend, using a remote, water-adjacent setting (the title references a boatman) as a backdrop for a story about how far a parent might go when conventional mourning offers no answers. The 2025 release reflects a growing pipeline of Turkish drama and horror-adjacent titles reaching audiences well beyond domestic release. Its small cast and single, isolated location keep the focus tight, favoring a slow build of unease over a wide ensemble or a sprawling plot, which lets the central relationship between mother and mystic carry most of the film's tension.
Where & how to watch
"Kayikci" streams on K-Time with a free account login, part of a catalog built around a Farsi-friendly viewing experience for Persian-speaking audiences. This Turkish-language film does not currently include a Farsi dub or subtitle track.