Synopsis

Eleven-year old Aslan finds – and saves – Sivas, a sheepdog left to die. Starting off as a moving tale of friendship, the feature soon evolves into anything but a typical Lassie story: his brother and neighbours pressure Aslan into making Sivas participate in brutal and illegal dogfights. While they increase his prestige among the villagers, the dogfights also toughen the boy and render him more and more selfish. And then there is Ayşe, his crush, but Osman, the village chief's son, likes her as well. When the prepubertal boys compete for the role of the prince in a theatrical production of Snow White, they add further fuel to the fight, and soon the enemies turn the already unusually vivid village life upside down. Sivas is not only a captivating coming-of-age story but also an intensive portrait of Eastern Anatolia's harsh rural life and its "men's world". It does not come as a surprise that the drama, which is also convincing in visual terms with long, unadorned shots of the landscape, and also impresses its audience through the lead actor's performance in particular, won the Special Jury Price in Venice in 2014.