Tuesday, June 5, 2018

They Start Falling For Each Other

This is always my favorite part: the beginning. 

There is chance meeting of Sherazat and her son with the two men at the movie theater.  Kerem has convinced Onur they should go do something, act like they did when they were kids.  So it's coincidental that they meet another kid, but also fitting.

We are keyed in to the exact moment Onur sees them.  He stops so suddenly Kerem notices and follows his gaze.  Onur says her name on a smile.  But having the boy actually in front of him, he is overcome, putting his fingers to his lips.  The slight action does not go unnoticed by Sherazat.  Kerem has crouched down to talk to Kaan but Onur can't bring himself to.
He does however smile affectionately, unabashedly, at Sherazat.
While Kerem is the one talking to Kaan, picking him up, Onur is clearly taken aback by meeting them and can't express himself.  It's one of the first times we've seen him be silent not out of severity or reserve--a tamping down of emotion--but rather by being overwhelmed by emotion.
He has shown her kindness at the office since the news got out, offering to let her go to be with her son rather than work late.  (He learns the boy's name and that he has a nanny.  And asks with some force, where is the father? and finds out Sherazat is a widow.)  But we have not seen this open affection from him before.  He secretive, coy interest in her still, but not such a clear, open warmth.  The Shah is melting.

It is obvious to Sherazat that Onur is riveted, that it is a struggle to contain himself.  As Kerem picks the boy up, Onur has completely turned to look at them, to watch Kaan.  And when finally Kerem makes a mock introduction to Onur, he shakes Kaan's hand with a caress and cannot resist placing his other hand over the boy's. But it is too much and as he slowing strokes his hand away from Kaan's he sucks in a breath.  He is on the verge of tears. More than words can say, his actions, his looks, convey how much he is ashamed of what she has endured at his bidding, both the night they spent together and the times he berated her at the office. Even more so, how he is cognizant of all the worry and hardship she has gone through because of her son's condition--while maintaining a demanding job, as a widow without the help her husband, and without the aid of his family to lean on.  He controlled the only salvation she had access to and and he exploited it--exploited her.  He is heartily ashamed of himself.

Yet despite having learned more about Onur's past, in the face of his such obvious regret and the tenderness he shows her son, Sherazat doesn't want to acknowledge that he could be capable of this  transformation. To her, he is the Black Night they shared.  But just as he is seeing how it was an aberration of her character to have gone through with it, she begins to have an inkling that it might have been an aberration of his to have suggested it.  And she doesn't want to unpack that notion or open herself up to the possibility.
Kerem is the one who gets to hold Kaan, kiss his cheek, say how cute he is, banter with him, but Onur is definitely the one more touched by him.  He even stuns Kerem by saying he'd like to be a father as they watch Sherazat and Kaan walk out of the theater.

And he's already thinking about being a father to Kaan specifically.  Later that day he asks Firdevs, his housekeeper, if she thinks it's possible to be a father to someone else's child.  The music gets ominous.  How can one man love another's progeny?  But Firdevs comes though.  Yes, love is love and giving it is a good thing.  But it does mean giving everything.
And we get a rather long quote from 1001 Nights (paraphrased):
It's hard to be voiceless when you have a tongue (I want to tell her but I can't)
My heart is full (I love her)
But she denies me even her bitterest glance because I broke her heart.  To erase that black night, I would give up my fortune.

And here we're hearkening back to Firdevs advice and the music that says 'tough question, it's not usually done'. Onur's mother Peride gives him a lot of flack for not being married, for being careful to find a good sort of girl, even instructing him to find someone from an old family (i.e. a rich, equal status).  He will be going against the grain if he pursues the idea of becoming Kaan's father.

Side note: tickling noises in Turkish sound the same as the US: ticka ticka ticka!

No comments:

Post a Comment