The second selection of the day was an Italian film shot mostly in Istanbul. "Steam: The Turkish Bath" is the story of Francesco, a twenty something interior designer whose marriage is more about arguing than love-making. Enter an inheritance, a property, a "hamam" (Turkish Bath) left to him by an estranged Aunt who he never knew. So off to Istanbul he goes to find someone to buy the property.
However, when he arrives, the lure of Istanbul begins to awaken in his heart a deeper sense of life: what he feels, what he desires, who he really is.
The movie's production values are very powerful in their simplicity as they are combined with a naive sense of the exotic. Eventually his wife arrives to discover things about her husband that both unravels her world and, then through a sudden twist, completely redefines it.
This is a powerfully written and deeply moving film. It left me with an affirmed desire to see Istanbul for myself one day. And in a final thought, the actor who plays the lead, Allessandro Gassman, is absolutely one of the most beautiful men I've ever seen.
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