A touching movie with immense potential

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2015)

This war movie was released on 100 year commemoration of War of Gallipoli. Strange enough this is not a just a war movie, because it has such a strong human story that stretches beyond any particular war. An Australian father searching for traces of his three lost sons on the battle field of Gallipoli after 4 years past the war. Would not an actor jump on his feet hearing this theme of a movie! And there was incredibly talented Russell Crowe as an actor as well as director making the most out of the great story line. It just got better every minutes; setting against the backdrop of early twentieth century's Istanbul, as beautiful and standing tall as it is today with its markets, blue mosque and what not. Who could show a better and almost clairvoyant depiction of traditional Turkish muddy coffee? A good movie is never called good for one actor. Yilmaz Erdogan was equally brilliant in his subtle expression, so was Olga Kurylenko, what a transition from Oblivion star! All actors including young Orhan (Dylan Georgiades) are never weak links. The closing song "Love was my alibi" is so melodious. All in all I would recommend everyone to watch this beautiful masterpiece.