Three sisters, one poor village and a father's house none of them hoped to see again: Kız Kardeşler is Emin Alper's 2019 drama, a Turkish-German co-production that runs 103 minutes.
What is Kız Kardeşler about?
The 1980s, in a village where little moves and even less changes. Reyhan, Nurhan and Havva were each sent to town as a 'besleme', a girl taken into a better-off household as part foster child and part maid. For a poor family it looked like the one visible road to something better. One after another, and each for her own reason, the sisters disappoint the people who took them in and are returned to their father's home. Under the same roof once more, with the future they had pictured now closed off, they have only each other to hold on to.
About the cast
Cemre Ebuzziya, Ece Yüksel and Helin Kandemir head the cast, joined by Müfit Kayacan and Kayhan Açıkgöz. Emin Alper directs. Since the story stays so close to a single household, much of the weight falls on the ensemble and on how the performers play off one another from scene to scene.
Context & significance
The word 'besleme' sits at the centre of the story. It describes an arrangement in which a girl from a poor rural family is placed with a wealthier family in town, raised there and expected to keep house in return. Alper's drama takes that custom as its starting point and looks at what remains for the girls once the arrangement fails and the door to town shuts behind them. The Turkish title simply means 'sisters', and the film keeps its attention there: on three young women whose prospects were decided by other people. It is catalogued as a drama, produced between Turkey and Germany, and it has been warmly received by viewers. The period setting matters as well, because the village of the 1980s is shown as stagnant and gloomy, a place people try to leave rather than return to.
Watching Kız Kardeşler on Ktime
Kız Kardeşler is in the K-Time catalogue. Reading this page is open to everyone; playing the film requires logging in with a K-Time account. K-Time is a Persian-focused streaming service built for the Iranian diaspora, with a full Farsi interface alongside English. No Persian dub or Persian subtitle track is listed for this title at the moment.