Commitment Hasan is the second film in the ’Commitment Trilogy’, from director Semih Kaplanoglu. The first film of the trilogy was, Commitment Asli, which was Turkey’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards in 2019.
The movie opens on an idyllic sunny summer’s day, there’s a light wind blowing through the beautiful Turkish countryside, and in the middle of it all, Hasan’s land full of fruits and vegetables. He is proud of his farm and would never allow anything bad to happen to it. However, a company wants to build a high voltage power line across its fields. We soon see this is just the first of several challenges.
Encouraged by his wife Emine (Filiz Bozok), he takes advantage of an impending bank foreclosure on neighboring land and bargains with the owner to buy it. As the couple’s request for a pilgrimage to Mecca is granted, the proud man begins to face his past and ask for the blessing of everyone he has ever wronged in the past.
Director Semih Kaplanoglu is one of the most acclaimed writer-director-producers of contemporary filmmaking in Turkey. Born and raised in Izmir, he received a Bachelor of Science in Cinema-Television from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Dokuz Eylul University, in 1984. Kaplanoglu made his debut feature in 2001 Away from Home, for which he was awarded Best Director in the Singapore International Film Festival.
Kaplanoglu’s 2010 film Honey won the Golden Bear award at Berlin Film Festival in 2010.