Hesitation Wound
Tereddüt Çizgisi
A steely criminal lawyer juggles a murder case and tending to her dying mother in this Turkish drama that unspools over a tense 24 hours.
High-powered attorney Canan is about to experience a single-day rollercoaster that will put her diamond-hard professionalism to the test. Her ailing mother is in hospital on life support while her latest client – a factory worker who allegedly murdered his boss – is on trial for his final day. Just as the case appears to be going in Canan’s favour, a last-minute witness throws her defence into chaos; this forces her to make a decision between serving justice and upholding the law.
In his second feature film, rising Turkish director Selman Nacar, who studied law before becoming a filmmaker, crafts an impossibly taut dramatic thriller that ratchets up the moral dilemmas over its compact, nerve-shredding running time. As the brittle and ambitious lawyer caught between ethical crisis and personal catastrophe, Tülin Özen delivers an electrifying, emotionally complex performance that holds the frame from first moment to clock-ticking finale.
“A study of stress that does for lawyers what Uncut Gems did for jewelers … Between the social commentary, depth of composition and subtlety of performance, Nacar finds the distinctly delicious sweet spot.” – IndieWire
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