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Based upon Dostoyevsky's 1864 novella Notes from Underground, Demirkubuz’s consummately crafted, blackly comic character study takes us on a discomfiting journey through a literally barking mad Ankaran civil servant’s crumbling psyche, following him as fantasy, memory, and experience blend in and out of each other against a backdrop of cosseted potatoes, put-upon widows, nefarious landlords, vulnerable prostitutes, larcenous writers, and drunken former friends. Engin Günaydin’s unsettling central performance, Demirkubuz’s expressive mise en scène, and Türksoy Gölebeyi’s dreamy photography combine to decidedly potent effect.
