Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Written and Directed by Can Evrenol.
This is a BRUTAL film with the biggest capital B that there ever was. Revenge with a capital R and blood with another capital B. NOTE: This film is not for the faint of heart!
Turkish director, Can Evrenol, keeps getting better and better with each passing film, and this one’s no exception. If you thought his inaugural film, Baskin, was a big ball of horrifying madness, then you’re in for a treat because Saraya is a wild and unique look into the world of revenge.
By revenge, we don’t mean your average kung fu flick, or the latest Liam Neeson film in the Taken series. We’re talking I Spit on Your Grave or worse yet, They Call Her One Eye. This is the gnarliest of the gnarly.
For the uninitiated, Can (Pronounced “Chon”) Evrenol is all too willing to spoil your appetite, ruin the party, and drop a turd in the punch bowl. Yet his incredibly unwelcoming films are packed with artistic panache and a clear understanding of what makes us, as humans, continually queasy and uncomfortable.
Summary of Sayara
Sayara (Duygu Kocabiyik), the eponymous main character of the film, is a quiet and humble janitor at a high-end gym. Turns out her sister is also connected to the gym by way of an ongoing and perverse sexual relationship with the married owner of the gym. Sadly, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill affair. Sayara’s sister Yonca (Özgül Kosar) is a participant in a hyper-sadistic tete-a-tete with gym owner Baris (Emre Kizilirmak).
When Yonca catches Baris with another woman, their sadism gives way to jealousy and hatred. Yonca initiates a cruel form of blackmail with Baris’ wife and children. Genuinely perplexed with how to handle the untamable Yonca, Baris turns to his repugnant collection of friends — a drug-fueled lunatic, a strongman imbecile, and a pretty-boy actor.
As Sayara tries to tame her sister’s wild leanings, Yonca is lured to the darkest depths of depravity with Baris’ odious pals. Yonca is summoned to their cocaine cabal and subjected to depravity, cruelty, and painful violence.
If you haven’t guessed already, this film is a rough bit of business that’s not for everyone.
Sadly, Yonca doesn’t make it out alive. Sayara, however, has her primordial switched, flipped, and Baris and company now have a rather large target on their abhorrent backs. Throughout the film, Evrenol deftly drops in hints about Sayara’s martial arts training and her upbringing with her father, also a martial arts expert.
Needless to say, anyone and everything ever connected to Baris is fair game. What appears to be a killing by numbers proceeding is anything but. Each time Sayara exacts revenge is different, controlled, and menacing. While she’s after Baris, it’s his loved ones and acquaintances that are all within her purview.
Sayara ultimately makes it to the metaphorical and actual estate of the final boss, Baris’ father. In a wonderful twist, of the likes this reviewer has never quite seen, Sayara doesn’t mow through every person. Instead, she offers Baris’ father and pals an option — one-on-one fights with her, sans weapons. If she dies, they win. If they die, they’re dead. It seems like a fair deal, doesn’t it? (Actually, no… and that’s awesome!)
Should you see Sayara?
If you’re a grizzled horror podcaster, then the answer is a definite yes. If the Bourne Identity is more your flavor, then you should run from — and not to — the theater.
Sayara is a beautifully constructed film that is constantly punctuated with horrifying violence and cruelty. In this case, it’s easy to root for Sayara. She’s been waiting and training for this fight her entire life. It’s not a matter of if, but when this powder keg explodes. And explode she does.
Those who are familiar with Evrenol’s work will fully understand what they’re getting into. It’s not the type of film that you run out and see multiple times, but it’s definitely a film whose gross sheen will stick with you for days and weeks.
Sayara isn’t rated, but it’s probably something well past NC-17. You have been warned! This is absolutely not a film for youngsters.