New Jersey Stage Issue 55 | Page 18

great pride in hosting such histori- cally significant attractions, but Sinan has little but contempt for the place of his birth, seeing the locals as small-minded bumpkins. He’s forced however to suck up to the town’s bigwigs, hoping one of them will finance the publishing of his novel, but is largely met with hostility due to his inability to talk to anyone without rubbing them up the wrong way with his air of intellectual supremacy. Much of the film focusses on Sinan’s increasingly estranged relationship with his father, Idris (Murat Cemcir), a primary school teacher whose gambling addic- tion has led to him making several enemies in town, not to mention plunging the family home into darkness when he can’t pay the electricity bill. This gives Sinan a chance to affect a moral superior- ity over his wayward father, but we get the sense that the young man is consumed with a jealousy of his father’s ability to be happy with his lot. In spite of his failings, Idris has a secure job and a loving wife, two Watch the trailer for The Wild Pear Tree NJ STAGE - ISSUE 55 INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 18