REVIEW - SILENT PLAN/SESSIZ PLAN (Directed by Ömer Yildirim)
Scored 8/10 by MegaFlix Movie Awards
With a run time of just over 13 minutes, Silent Plan (Sezziz Plan in Turkish) directed by Ömer Yildirim (Kiraz Mevsimi, Sir-Ayet 2, Shame, Sevda Kusun Kanadinda) is a creative short film with a thought-provoking twist at its climax.
Ömer Yildirim is a published author, known for his multitude of acting roles in film and television after beginning his career in theatre, however, Silent Plan represents his first effort as a writer, producer and director - and he has certainly risen to the challenge.
Silent Plan introduces us to four individuals with hearing problems, Kemal (played by Mehmet Sah Celik), Leyla (played by Elif Cakirtas), Mustafa (played by Berk Aydin), and Asya (played by Merve Ayaz). They have chosen to be part of a program offering an incredible new treatment for deafness, with a revolutionary new high-tech artificially-intelligent gadget, which will finally allow them to hear.
We see our protagonists recording the voices of their loved ones, as they have been doing for years - capturing the sounds of birthdays, family gatherings, parties - collecting the auditory memories of their lives to be replayed and yet only heard for the first time, should, by some miracle, they ever have their senses of hearing restored.
As the character development is taking place, we also come to learn of problems at the tech company, as the bosses there have clandestine conversations with sinister undertones, discussing emergent problems and faults with the new gadgets - and just before the trial of the prototypes was about to start - talk about bad timing!
And with that, the project is cancelled without explanation, dashing the hopes of our main characters - that they will ever be able to hear again, and leading them to then have some clandestine conversations of their own...
Touted as a drama, this short film also has hints of sci-fi about it, and also a few very subtle moments of comedy as well, but it's essentially a creative re-imagining of the classic heist movie, as our four deaf characters plot a dangerous and daring mission to break into the tech company's headquarters and get their hands on the high-tech hearing aids whether their deemed ready and safe for use - or not!
With excellent cinematography throughout, the film opens with some great establishing shots, and begins with a strong performance from a child actor, and from there the high production values continue until the film's conclusion. Performances from all cast members are entirely convincing, and are made all the more believable by the contributions of Elif Cakirtas as Leyla and Berk Aydin as Mustafa, both performers who are deaf; and their excellent performances add to the realism.
The film is easy to follow, with clear subtitling, and a decent sound design helps with this too. The film is brought to life by the strong cast, the choice of locations and set design, and the clever twist at the end makes this a thought-provoking watch.
A key take-home from Silent Plan is summarised nicely by the writer and director himself; commenting on his new film, Ömer Yildirim said: "We all have dreams. Sometimes life gives us hope and opportunities. But dreams and reality don’t always match."
This short is thoroughly enjoyable and will be enjoyed by fans of short films, dramas, science-fiction, dark humour, and movies that will make you think.
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