^#smrgSAHAF Mediterranean Waltz - 2000

It is the late 1990's in Istanbul. Duna, an Istanbulian high school teacher is suddenly taken by two soldiers from his home as civil war has erupted. The country is being mobilized. Duna is not in the least surprised; he had had a premonition of the coming struggle. But what does surprise him are the headlines in the newspapers about Ada, a woman he passionately loved, who has just been accused of murder. Duna is taken by a military truck that early morning to the army headquarters while his mother thinks he was taken by an ambulance to a mental institution. Despite all the bloodshed around him, Duna keeps telling us that what is happening to him is just a nightmare. His Kafkaesque imaginings and reality come together in a labyrinth as Duna tries to escape into the memories of his Ottoman-Turkish youth. He goes with the army to an unknown place where the civil war is going on. Wherever Duna goes he keeps meeting childhood friends from his neighborhood of Kuzguncuk, a small village by the Bosphorus known for its rich mix of Jewish, Armenian,and Greek minorities and the Muslim community. The story explores the parallel between the civil war and wars inside a participants's mind,and their painful similarities. In the middle of war, Duna, a pacifist, recalls his youth and his unrequited love for Ada, the girl who loved his brother, Aras. This classical impossible love triangle is shattered by a mysterious accident in which Aras dies leaving some question marks behind. Duna's desperate love towards Ada turns into an obsession for her during his civil war journey. The tale questions the delicate details of love-sex and desire-passion through a romantic triangle. Finally the unidentified war ends and Duna realizes one must first know how to combat one's interior wars. He returns to Kuzguncuk, Istanbul, a stronger, more confident individual. He is strong enough now not to care what anyone thinks. What he really cares about is knowing what he wants to do in life. The story highlights the ethnic and political games played on individuals and displays them in turn through the eyes of the educated elite, the common man, and the military.

You will be thrilled, when you read Mediterranean Waltz - Nilüfer Kuyaş -Milliyet

It is a literary feast by Buket Uzuner - Prof. Gürsel Aytaç