Çakal, director Erhan Kozan’s debut feature, is a raw and confrontational story that takes the viewer deep into the repressed dark alleys of the human mind. Almost everyone in this film will push you to doubt the genuineness of humanity, if there is such a thing as humanity, and has the courage to show us those extremes that are so easy to ignore. İsmail Hacıoğlu won the award for best actor at 16th Sadri Alışık Theater and Cinema Awards for his performance.

Near İstanbul’s historic city walls lives a young man by the name of Akın (İsmail Hacıoğlu). His penetrating gaze and overall strangely silent demeanor indicate the psyche of a tormented person. The recent loss of his mother only serves to catalyze the events that release the anger inside of him. Akın already has a problem with his devout father, as he considers his moral high ground to be fake. It is exactly this feeling of intolerance for his father that pushes him to confront the moral hypocrisy of those around him. But maybe this is just a way to eliminate his own self-doubt, for the more he pushes those close to him away, the more he can convince himself of the triviality of his oncoming criminal identity.

It isn’t long before Akın decides to join the local mafia through his friend İdris (Çetin Altay). He starts bunking in the dark cellar of the covert gambling joint run by big-timers Fahrettin (Uğur Polat) and Celayir (Erkan Can) and soon he becomes the number one guy for collecting gambling debts.

But nothing is free, not the money, the booze or the ladies. Fahrettin and Celayir are masters in the art of human manipulation, and Akın will soon find out that his new “home” is not a home at all...

EMİNE YILDIRIM / todayszaman.com