Review of Pandora'nin Kutusu

Since the time "Pandora's Box" was honored with the golden sea-shell in San Sebastián International Film Festival I have been looking froward to seeing it.While the recent Turkish comedy potboilers seem to be everywhere at your disposal, movies like this one,alas, look like really hard to find. Pandora's Box is the story of three siblings,Nesrin, Güzin,and Mehmet who have to deal with their aging mother who suddenly shows signs of senile dementia. While Nesrin (Derya Alabora)is already anxious about her son who hasn't been home for a while, she receives a call notifying that her mother has gone missing. She contacts her two siblings,Murat(Onur Ünsal)and Güzin (Övül Avkiran) and the three siblings living in Istanbul set out for their village located in the Black Sea region. En route, the dysfunctional family lets the viewer know them better with their unresolved issues. Murat apparently can't pay even his rent while Güzin is still with an "ass.hole who is just screwing with her"...and Güzin is continuously accused of messing with everybody's life and giving orders... When they arrive in their village, they find their mother Nusret (Tsilla Chelton) and take her to Istanbul but the last place the aging Nusret would like to be in is a bustling,crowded,noisy metropolis. While the three siblings can't really sort out their differences and find some peace in their life Nesrin's son (Nusret's maladjusted grandson) surprisingly turns out to be only one who can really get to communicate with the nanny. Against the backdrop of alienation versus affection, modernity versus traditionality, a metropolitan city versus a lush green,mountainous village the story of Pandora's Box is a sweet story but I can't really say the same thing for the acting.The award winning ninety-year-old French actress Tsilla Chelton seems like she is the only one doing justice to the cinematic experience. I don't know...maybe Chelton was so great with all that experience that she overshadowed the whole cast because she seems like she is the whole locomotive for the achievement of this movie. In short, Pandora's Box is not a bad movie but it does not sound as good as any movie which got so many awards like the golden Golden Seashell.