Mother (Ana)

In 1967 Ömer Lütfi Akad directed and wrote Ana (Mother), a black-and-white Turkish drama. Running 91 minutes, it tells of the blood feud, a wound that never closes in rural Anatolia. Counted among the important examples of social-realist Turkish cinema, it is seen as a forerunner of the Anatolian Trilogy that Akad would make in later years. Nami Dilbaz produced it for Şahin Film.

The story begins after Şevket, who wandered from village to village fleeing a blood feud, fails to escape his enemies and is shot dead. The whole burden of the family falls on his wife Döndü, who must contend with poverty and a feud that never ends. Türkân Şoray plays Döndü; Erol Taş and Kadir Savun are among the principal actors, and the cast also lists Yılmaz Duru, Selahattin İçsel, Gonca Alyanak and Osman Alyanak. One reviewer recalls it as one of the films in which Şoray first showed her true acting power, and finds Akad's direction and the performances of Taş and Savun well worth watching.

Money troubles are said to have kept Akad from putting the film in his mind fully on screen. Cengiz Tacer shot it, and the music was prepared by Orhan Gencebay and Abdullah Nail Bayşu; Gencebay also plays saz in the film.