The character of Vural Beyaz in the movie Bembeyaz (2021), which I watched on the plane this week, made me think about the concepts of crime, conscience, sin, punishment and faith; It took me back to the books I read years ago, to the theories we discussed in ethics classes during my university years.
(Contains spoilers)
Our hero works in his father's photography studio across from the American Consulate. He is married, has a son. He does not drink, prays, collects the crumbs that fall on the table, carries amulets around his neck. When his son confesses that he cheated and stole money from the local store, he says that this behavior is "wrong" and that God will see it, even if no one else does. He insists that he return the stolen money, saying "I found it on the ground". It teaches him to repent.
Yet he never hesitates to lie while he teaches her son about being honest. When his father says, "Did you smoke", he answers without hesitation, "It's over, you know" He says to his wife "I'm going to brush my teeth" and meets his childhood friend Kartal at the tavern. Saying that the stone that the customer threw at the window of the shop during the fight also damaged the plaster of the wall, he tries to inflict the cost of the crack that has been standing for months. He leaves the shop by making up all kinds of excuses and meets Sonay, whom he has been with for a while.
The murder of his pregnant lover in one of these meetings is the turning point of both the film and Vural's life. There is no question mark in the minds of Vural or the audience that the murder he committed was a "crime" in the sense that Karl Jaspers defines as a "legal crime" in his book The Problem of Guilt. This murder is a crime against existing laws.
Well, when we consider the murder under Karl Jasper's concept of "moral crime", is Vural's action a crime? According to Jaspers, when moral crimes are in question, the decision maker is not the court, but the individual himself, his conscience, his "deepest answer in his heart".
After the murder scene, we begin to witness Vural's conscientious reckoning, which I think is when the movie really begins. Alf Ross says that the determinant of guilt and our answer to this question is the moral universe we live in. According to the Islamic morality that Vural learned from his father and his environment, murder is a sin. However, in a dialogue between them, we witness how they both use the concept of "predestination" to convince themselves that they are morally sinless:
Vural: "You said, 'No one can prevent what will happen and who will die', "When the time comes no one can stop it'," he begins to speak. "If you get hit by a car and die, is it God who brings death?" "Is the driver God's driver?"
We can see how this example disturbed Ibrahim, as he had caused the death of his wife in an accident while driving drunk years ago:
"God's will", "Close this topic, don't ever open it again"
One of the important dialogues of the movie takes place between Vural and the imam:
"Your father also came. After his wife. "Is the door of repentance open?" he asked. This time he repeats for Vural what he said to Imam Ibrahim: "The door of repentance is always open."
In this way, Vural, just like Ibrahim, is convinced that he is "not guilty" as a result of his conscientious reckoning and that he is forgiven after repentance: Sonay was pregnant, she threatened him with going to Ibrahim and telling everything, he was afraid, Sonay's time had already come, it was God's will.
The film made me think of Raskolnikov, another criminal who did not consider himself "guilty" even while in prison, and his arguments. I think the director Necip Caghan Ozdemir wanted us to remember him with the ax symbol.
Does the snow falling on the ax at the end of the movie cover the sins of Ibrahim, Vural, Raskolnikov and the society that allows us to use religious and moral teachings "as it suits us"?
Watch this movie, which also shines in acting and cinematography and them let's talk discuss.
