The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Berlin Film Festival 2015

Until I Lose My Breath

Berlin Film Festival 2015: Until I Lose My Breath | Review
17 February 2015
Sarah Rutterford
Avatar
Sarah Rutterford
17 February 2015

Movie and show review

Sarah Rutterford

Until I Lose My Breath

★★★★★

Links

FacebookWebsite

Until I Lose My Breath, the debut feature from Turkish writer/director Emine Emel Balci, gives a grey and grim view of Istabul, seen through the eyes of Serap (Esme Madra), a morose teenage girl with the weight of the world and dreams of independence on her shoulders.until

Serap, our teenage anti-heroine, works long hours in a textile sweatshop. She’s desperately trying to make enough money to get her own flat in which to live with her father – a long distance lorry driver who pops by occasionally and appears to have little care for his daughters’ situation and welfare.

We learn that Serap spent time in an orphanage following her mother’s death and now lives with her sister and brutish brother-in-law whose only concern is the month’s rent. Pale and thin with sunken tired eyes, she seems old before her time, the responsibility of trying to secure the basic things in life taking their toll and leaving little time for usual teenage frolics.

It’s a lonely life for a young woman in her situation and the story does little lighten the load for the protagonist or for us and it’s perhaps the lack of respite that prevents this film from ever fully engaging. Men are portrayed negatively – maybe Balci is trying to make a point – but doesn’t help add texture or diversity. It feels a little repetitive; it really is very grey and Madra’s repressed performance lacks the depth and texture that is needed to give the story a much needed oomph.

The hand-held camera shot of the back of the head as we follow our protagonist gives a sense of doom from the start, a feeling that things are only going to get worse for the youngster.  It puts us very much in the gritty, tension-filled, working-class drama of the Dardenner genre, but this film lacks the shock and confrontation of its predecessors and now seems a little worn. The incredibly sparse text, elongated scenes squeezing out more character turmoil and an overall joylessness make it hard watching and don’t perhaps make the impact that the film, in subject matter, is trying to convey.

Until I Lose My Breath has its heart in the right place and is obviously important in terms of opening up the difficulties of inner-city life to a wider audience, but it feels like the daily grind it’s trying to reflect has been ground into it a little too much.

★★★★★

Sarah Rutterford

Until I Lose My Breath does not yet have a UK release date.

Read more of our reviews and interviews from the festival here.

For further information about Berlin Film Festival 2015 visit here.

Related Itemsberlinale 2015until i lose my breath

More in Berlinale

A Little Love Package

★★★★★
Oliver Johnston
Read More

Sonne

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Gangubai Kathiawadi

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

“I was always trying to find this equilibrium between improvising and following the script”: Carla Simón on Golden Bear-winning Alcarràs

Sarah Bradbury
Read More

A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love: An interview with Nicolette Krebitz

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Berlinale 2022: Awards predictions and highlights from the festival

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Concerned Citizen

★★★★★
Oliver Johnston
Read More

So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist’s Film)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Rimini: An interview with director Ulrich Seidl

Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Sarah Rutterford

Until I Lose My Breath

★★★★★

Links

FacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • Paolo Nutini at the 100 Club
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Decision to Leave (Heojil Kyolshim)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • November (Novembre)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Forever Young (Les Amandiers)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • “Ruben is wonderful at picking holes in our behaviour and our egos”: Woody Harrelson, Ruben Östlundand and cast at the Triangle of Sadness press conference
    Cannes Film Festival 2022
  • Summer Scars (Nos Cérémonies)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Decision to Leave (Heojil Kyolshim)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Emergency
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Men
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Triangle of Sadness
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Aftersun
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Berlin Film Festival 2015: Exotica, Erotica, Etc | Review
Berlin Film Festival 2015: Antboy: Revenge of the Red Fury | Review