This Turkish film describes life in a small mountain village, as seen through the eyes of three teenagers. Ömer, the imam’s son, his best friend Yakup and their female friend Yildiz all encounter different hurdles on the way to adulthood. Bes Vakit is a coming of age story with universal appeal: being a teen is an awkward experience, regardless of where you live. The alienation, the loneliness, the miserableness are apparently the same everywhere.

Bes Vakit is written and directed by Reha Erdam, whose 1999 film Para Kac (A Run for Money) was the Turkish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film-Oscar. It consists more of atmosphere than of actual story. Erdam presents a film made up of cycles: in time (although reversed), in nature, in life. There is nature here, but also nurture, in all of its varieties. However, since Bes Vakit is quite a slow film, a bit more coherence would have been better. The counter clockwise cycle combined with the otherwise linear timeline sometimes blurs the narrative.

The most striking thing about Bes Vakit is the meticulous use of colour and light (its cinematography won a well-earned award at the Istanbul International Film Festival). Erdam uses many static shots with people moving in and out of frame. Instead of the traditional set dressing, Erdam applies scenery, displaying nature in all its splendour; and thereby commenting on the characters place in it. The mood is enhanced by the music (easily recognisable as composed by master of melancholy Arvo Pärt) that accompanies Bes Vakit’s carefully positioned images.

With Bes Vakit, Erdam commemorates and comments on love and relationships. Love between fathers and their children, between spouses. Love of the land you grew up in and live of. It celebrates the brotherhood that exists between real friends and bemoans parents who, on their own children, repeat the mistakes their parents made with them. Bes Vakit shows us the enrichment that exists in people taking care of each other, as well as the impoverishment of sticking too close to (family) traditions.

What is nice about Bes Vakit is that not everything is explained. Some images are left to the interpretation and imagination of the viewer, enabling them to insert their own experiences and opinions on growing up into what Bes Vakit has to say on the subject.

That said: Bes Vakit is more a cinematic than an emotional experience. Its images are stunning, but its narrative sometimes fails to keep interest. This means that, despite its many merits, Bes Vakit is a not entirely satisfying film.