A family of Turks living in Berlin is riven when one younger member’s queer sexuality emerges in drama Hijamat, the earnest but underwhelming latest from Iranian-Turkish writer-director Nader Saeivar, and a competitor for the Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary this year.
Much is made in the film’s publicity and programming material of the involvement of auteur Jafar Panahi, who serves as the film’s editor and one of its three producers. He had the same credits for Saievar’s 2024 feature The Witness, one of several collaborations between the two. (Saievar co-wrote Panahi’s recent award-winner It Was Just an Accident and also was involved in Panahi’s features 3 Faces and No Bears.) However, this drawn out, sometimes clunky issues-driven drama lacks flow, although it has moments, including an oddly tacked-on but still compelling bit of scenery-chewing from a seldom-seen Nastassja Kinski as a mentally unwell neighbor.
Hijamat
The Bottom Line
Shame and secrets eat the soul.
