A meek and fragile young writer goesto a remote village in the most underdeveloped part of the country as ateacher, where his struggles with natural difficulties, lack of interestof government officials, rampant poverty and illness during a winterseason are balanced somehow by the villagers' simple pity for thispathetic foreigner. The film was impressively photographed by KenanOrmanlar, who also photographed Ali Ozgenturk's The Horse (see February19). German critic Peter Buchka wrote, "One feels in every shot theicy coldness, which not only pushes the characters together, but alsomakes them appear at the same time as lost points in the grandiosesetting of the Anatolian mountains....It takes patience in order to'defrost' problems that are 'frozen' into rigid (social practices),especially under the eye of the Turkish censor. Kiral and Ormanlar areable to produce the necessary warmth to loosen problems from theirfossilized rigidity through gesture and manner of behavior, which standin a rhythmic, sympathetic balance to archaic nature."