Reviewed by Jesse Dixon
WINNER of the 2026 Berlin Film Festival, and from the director of The Teachers Lounge
comes a fresh political thriller where no one can separate the art from the artist.
Derya and Aziz are a married couple living in Turkey with their teenage daughter. Derya is a
well-known theatre actor, whilst Aziz is a playwright; hence, the two often collaborate. Aziz also
teaches at a university, and, after footage is leaked of him criticising the government and
preaching their wrongdoings to his students, he and his wife face political persecution. They lose
their jobs, are forced to move from their hometown, Ankara, to Istanbul, and their marriage
begins to unravel.
Yellow Letters is quite a leap in scale for director Ilker Catak, whose aforementioned previous
film (nominated for an Academy Award) is entirely set in a school. There are many, many
extras; Germany is designed to look like Turkey, and the film certainly feels large. But the
picture’s emotional resonance needs to be on par, and as a political feature of today, as well as a Berlin Film Festival winner, this film feels incredibly safe.
To a progressive audience, the film is telling you exactly what you want to hear. It highlights the
bravery of the couple in speaking out for good despite losing their careers. However, a huge flaw
of this film is that nothing bad really happens to these people. Everything works out; the
circumstances of peril are resolved relatively quickly. Obviously, their lives will never be the
same, but compared to lots of other individuals who are suffering much more, they make
speaking out seem like a walk in the park.
There’s a throwaway line regarding this, where a character reassures Derya and Aziz that things
could be worse, but we never get to see the ‘worse’. There are no perspectives of people who are seriously struggling because of political persecution, in much more dire situations than Derya and Aziz, who still have a roof over their heads and sources of income. The main complication of Yellow Letters is that these people are struggling with their marriage, which, in this situation, seemed unrealistic for this reviewer.
Yellow Letters proves that a film’s physical scale cannot compare to its emotional scale; the latter is much more important in leaving a lasting impact on the audience.
The Teachers Lounge was a very impactful film in a small environment. It’s a shame director
Ilker Catak’s new film couldn’t do the same, in a political landscape where it really needed to.
Yellow Letters had its Australian Premiere at the 73rd Sydney Film Festival. A wider
Australian release has yet to be confirmed.