Kenan Korkmaz's sophomore effort looks at the lives of two Assyrian siblings contending with being part of an ethnic minority at home and abroad.
Gloom, doom and furrowed brows permeate Gone 'The Other and the Unknown', Turkish director Kenan Korkmaz's second feature about modern-day Assyrians, a stateless people whose existence are mostly marginalized in nearly all the host countries they live in. Dedicating one hour each to a pair of siblings who has chosen different futures – one stayed in their hometown in southwestern Turkey, another upped roots and moved to Sweden – Korkmaz's film boasts of poetic visuals oozing solemnity and sadness, but was undermined by a heavy-handed approach in pushing many a melodramatic tropes about the forced acclimatization and repression of ethnic minorities by dominant social groups.
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