Rahma (Rahma) (2026)
Director – Faysal Soysal – 2026 – Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy – 121m
*****
A collision of several sets of lives, among them a childless couple, a people trafficker, and a street refugee child – premieres in the Critics’ Picks Competition of the 30th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
A celebrant chants Latin over several rows of people each covered in a white sheet (like the traditional Western image of a ghost) while an assistant scatters a scent from a holder. One of the sheets (male) reaches out to hold the hand of another (female), who pushes him away.
The local Imam addresses Ibrahim (Ugur Aslan) and Meryam (Denis Isim) about their inability to have children. Abrahams usually can’t have children, he says, but Marys usually do sooner or later. He talks about evil spirits in her womb, and gives her an amulet containing a fresh umbilical cord to ward them off. We are clearly in religious superstition land. As the ritualistic instructions get ever more specific, Meryem goes outside and throws up. Your immediate thought is, morning sickness.
She’s tried herbal mix from the local market, taken whilst soaking in a bath. . They’ve tried everything the doctor recommended, except removing the woman’s defunct womb or getting a foreign surrogate mother to carry the baby to term.… Read the rest
