BFI London Film Festival: Lifelong

Asli Özge’s follow-up to her prize-winning feature debut Men on the Bridge (which played in the 2009 LFF) is still more assured and impressive. Acclaimed conceptual artist Ela might seem to have it all, even if her marriage to Can, a likewise successful architect who designed their minimalist Istanbul house himself, has lost its shine and their daughter Nil has left home to study in Ankara. But if she weren’t already anxious enough – about her work and about passing 50 – a conversation she overhears has her doubting Can’s fidelity. Özge’s bold exploration of bourgeois malaise articulates its astute psychological insights not through the sparse, intentionally unrevealing dialogue but through the deft nuances of the uniformly fine performances and through Emre Erkmen’s cinematography; the meticulous framing of interiors and exteriors alike is as expressive – and as strikingly imaginative – as Antonioni’s. Taut, poised and lucid, the film rings piercingly true.