Okan Husnu

A Turkish man and Greek woman fall in and out of love.

Nineteen-year-old Ari confronts both his sexuality and his Greek family. Ari despises his once-beloved parents, former radical activists, for having entombed themselves in insular tradition. Ari is obsessed with gay sex, although he does make an unenthusiastic attempt to satisfy the sister of one of his best friends. While all of this is going on, he's facing problems with his traditional Greek parents, who have no clue about his sexual activities.

A strange day begins for 18 year old Adam with a phone call from an old school friend. After several years without any contact, Luke is eager for a reunion. Bewildered, Adam sets off to meet up with his childhood mate. What follows is a sequence of interactions with Luke's family members, overlaid with a drug and alcohol binge. As the day progresses through a series of funny, sad and violent clashes it becomes clear that the stranger has little in common with the people he has been thrown in with. What all these characters do share though is an intense desire to be something more than what they are.

Ali Alizadeh reads English translations of Rumi and Hafiz, as well as his own contemporary Sufi poems. Accompanying the poems, the film follows six characters on their individual journeys of disenchantment, awakening and bliss: a poet and dancer who are struggling with their art, and four lovesick individuals, engulfed in solitude and yearning.

The Searchers' classic hit "Needles and Pins" accompanies images of couples gazing lovingly into each others' eyes. Love, naturally, is transcendent.

A Turkish man and Greek woman fall in and out of love.