i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Successful Turkish commercial director Levent Semerci adapts the short stories "Tales from the Southeast" and "Ground Minus Zero" by former Turkish National Security Council public relations officer Hakan Evrensel into this successful feature debut which won two awards at the 3rd Yeşilçam Awards as well as being one of the highest grossing Turkish films of 2009.Veteran army officer Cpt. Mete (Mete Horozoglu), who has been unbalanced by recent casualties, takes command of an ill-prepared platoon of military service conscripts assigned a relay station in the South-Eastern mountains of Turkey at the height of the conflict with the PKK in a plot inspired by a number of genuine incidents.Mete Horozoglu is superb at the head of a truly ensemble cast of unknown actors who underwent rigorous military training in preparation for their roles and who as a result come together to create a convincing group of everyday Mehmets, with Dogukan Polat and Ibrahim Akoz particular highlights, sent to almost certain death for reasons they can't truly comprehend.The debut director makes wonderful use of almost poetic imagery to break up the realistically mind numbing monotony of the majority of the film's 128 minute running time with rare moments of high tension such as the Captains initial motivating speech about the dangers of sleep and the brutal final act to create a seemingly realistic war film in the style of "Full Metal Jacket" by Stanley Kubrick.This film however steers a careful line between patriotism and anti-militarism prompting massive debate throughout Turkey as to the films true message but however you read it you can't help but be moved by the insight into the everyday lives and deaths of these simple folk facing the banal monotony and absolute terror of compulsory military service in a country at war against itself."You'll be heroes for 45 seconds!"

War, what is it for? Nefes - Breath is one of the best Turkish films on the market. The film is based on a true conflict that goes around in the southeastern part of Turkey for many years. While I like to review without regarding the previous reviews, this film deserves some back-story. First of all, the film is not intended specifically for outside viewers. It is hard for a foreigner to understand the militaristic nature of Turkish people. Still, it is an important aspect of Turkish culture, without violent roots present in western militaristic mind. Note that Turkish Military mind upholds peace over war and prefers cease fires even the odds are with them. Secondly, this film is about waiting for an enemy who will strike for sure. The psychological stillness present in the whole part of the movie is the real thing on the battlefield. As a soldier, you will wait for countless nights and fight for just an hour. This was always the basis for wars throughout the history. So, if you really want to picture the war as real as possible you must consider the silence before the storm. This film does that. Thirdly, a woman always wears make-up, even in the mountains. And the make-up used by the women on the mountain is customary to regional people, dominant in Kurds, black lines on the eyelashes. Also, it is known that terrorists on the mountains mostly bring their families, girlfriends with them, especially during winter time where it is hard to go down the mountains. In short, this film is about people, waiting. It is highly artistic with real acting. Some people may criticize that exactly precise acting may be no acting at all. So, expect real people and expect real talks. A must-see for every Turk. Hard to get for westerners. Understandable for easterners.

I was really looking forward to this movie because of the high rating at IMDb and the promising plot. Well, i have seen many war movies, good ones and bad ones. Unfortunately "Nefes: Vatan sagolsun (The Breath)" turned out to be a rather bad movie. First thing to analyze is to judge whether this is a propaganda movie or not: It is not a obvious propaganda movie, that is for sure. But looking at IMDb comments like: "long live Turkish warriors" and others, i think it's a simplistic and unidimensional war movie. The PKK-Dudes are shown as insane suicide bombers, evil misanthropists. There is no word about what caused this conflict. Another thing i must state is that this is not a anti-war-movie. I could explain that in words, but i strongly recommend everyone in the world to watch : "Hotaru no haka (Grave of the Fireflies". Then you will know why most of the so called "anti-war-movies" are not what they are trying to be.Well, there isn't everything bad about the movie. The acting is OK.I also liked some of the pictures like the scenes with the clouds. The characters could have been interesting, i mean their development in solitude. Problem is that i've seen lots of movies that to exactly that in a better way. In this movie i never really care for any of the characters. Well that's it. I don't want to disrupt you folks in your excessive nationalism, so just keep rating this as 10/10

The movie was really engaging in the first half and concentrated more on the psychology of the soldiers at the frontier outpost but quickly turned into a mess by feeding off on Turkish people's silly nationalist feelings about 'national pride', and 'love for the country ' and the rest of the classic 'ideals' nationalisms around the world love to live on. In other words the director decided to exploit Turkish people's low feelings of Turkish Nationalism and make some quick bucks. What's next a movie about how the Armenian genocide never happened? Turkish Nationalism reigns supreme in this horrible movie! By the way, this movie is WAY OVERRATED, a more fair rating would be 5-6 on IMDb but seems that someone is manipulating the ratings... I've noticed that several other Turkish movies are rated over 8.0 which is very high for IMDb standards. Considering Turksih movies are not really well known in English speaking countries the numbers are obviously manipulated.