Part of the Wisconsin Film Festival, cosponsored by MESP
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As engrossing as a thick novel, Commitment Hasan is a sharp examination of money and corruption in rural Turkey. Hasan has been carefully tending to his farm in the beautiful and fertile Turkish countryside ever since inheriting it from his father. But when government officials reveal their plans to plant an enormous pylon smack dab in the middle of his land, it loosens something within him, revealing an instinct for self-preservation at all costs. At the same time, Hasan and his wife have finally received approval to make a long-awaited pilgrimage to Mecca. This happy news unexpectedly dredges up more soul-searching, as preparation for the trip requires a spiritual cleanse in which travelers must receive forgiveness from everyone they have ever wronged, forcing Hasan to reopen chapters from his past that he’d rather leave closed. Shot in impossibly lush 6K, Commitment Hasan sets its complex moral dilemmas against images of such fine-grained detail that it feels as though you could reach out and touch them. “Strikingly beautiful. Combines an enveloping sense of place with a pleasingly textured portrait of an imperfect man” (Screen). 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Best International Film, 2021 Mostra Film Festival, São Paulo. (MK)