Bornova Bornova 2009

In İzmir’s Bornova district, a single day unfolds for three young men from the same neighborhood: Öner Erkan as Hakan, Kadir Çermik as Salih, and Erkan Bektaş as Murat. Hakan spends his days in front of the neighborhood’s grocery shop with Salih, hoping for a real chance to build a life: to earn enough money to support a small family and to marry the girl he secretly adores, Damla Sönmez as Özlem. Salih, the neighborhood’s psychopathic rogue, is like an older brother to Hakan, a figure both protective and perilous in equal measure. Though he comes from a respectable, educated family, Salih is deeply involved in illegal businesses around the area, a presence that many people fear, including Özlem, a high school student.

Hakan’s longing is tempered by the shadow of Salih’s world, and he clings to the hope that life might offer him a doorway to something better. Murat, Salih’s childhood friend and a doctoral student in philosophy, earns his living by writing erotic fantasies, a detail that unsettles and intrigues in equal measure. He shares with Hakan a story—an erotic fantasy drawn from a real event involving Salih and Özlem—that complicates Hakan’s understanding of the people around him. The tale leaves him disappointed and confused, pushing him toward Özlem’s house as he seeks to learn the full truth behind the rumors and the fantasy that has already colored his perception of the neighborhood.