Miracle (2015) Review: A Village Schoolroom Fable

Is Miracle worth watching?

Yes, with reservations. Miracle (Mucize) is a sincere, often moving drama about education and compassion in a remote Turkish village, and its best scenes earn the tears they are after. Mahsun Kırmızıgül tells a simple story with conviction, backed by strong work from Talat Bulut and handsome mountain landscapes. The reservation is its register: this is unabashed melodrama, with swelling music and clear-cut morals, and at 136 minutes it lingers longer than it needs to.

What is Miracle about?

Miracle is a period drama set in a poor, isolated village in the mountains of eastern Turkey, far from the cities and from the reach of the state. A schoolteacher, played by Talat Bulut, is posted there to bring education to children who have never had a classroom, and he arrives to find little more than suspicion, poverty and hard physical conditions.

Among the villagers is Aziz (Mert Turak), a young man with a severe physical disability, whose place in the community and whose growing bond with the teacher become a central thread. As the teacher tries to win the village’s trust, the film becomes a story about what it means for a community to change its mind, about learning, and about who is valued.

Kırmızıgül wrote and directed the film, and also appears in it as Bozat. It is a Turkish production in Turkish and runs 136 minutes. It was a major domestic success and later spawned a sequel.

A crowd-pleaser with real feeling

Kırmızıgül works in the tradition of large-scale Turkish family melodrama, and he knows exactly how to build an emotional scene. The film’s strongest passages are its quietest: the teacher’s first lessons with children seeing letters for the first time, the slow thaw of villagers who begin to see him as one of their own, and moments of tenderness between people who have little else to give each other.

Talat Bulut anchors the film with a patient, dignified performance. His teacher is not a saint descending from above but a tired, principled man who has to adapt to the village as much as it adapts to him. That balance keeps the film from becoming a simple story of an outsider bringing enlightenment.

A demanding role at the film’s heart

Playing a severely disabled young man is a demanding role, and Mert Turak’s performance as Aziz is committed and physical. At its best, it gives the character humour, stubbornness and an inner life, and the scenes that explore how the village treats him contain some of the film’s sharpest observations about prejudice. At other moments the portrayal leans toward the kind of mannered performance that some viewers will find uncomfortable, and the film occasionally uses the character to cue emotion rather than to explore him.

The production values are high for a domestic drama. The mountain village is photographed with an eye for sweeping landscapes and hard light, and the period details, from clothing to the stone houses, feel lived-in.

Sentiment laid on thick

The film’s weaknesses are those of its genre. The score is insistent, the obstacles in the teacher’s way are broadly drawn, and several conflicts resolve with a neatness that belongs more to fable than to drama. At 136 minutes, a number of scenes repeat emotional beats the film has already established. Viewers used to the restraint of Turkish art-house cinema will find it a very different experience.

Who should watch Miracle?

It is a good choice for audiences who enjoy emotional family dramas, stories about teachers and rural communities, and popular Turkish cinema at its most sentimental. It is suitable for older children and families, with themes of poverty, prejudice and hardship but little graphic content. Set aside a full evening for it.

For more Turkish drama in a similar or contrasting key:

• Miracle in Cell No. 7, an even bigger tearjerker with a gentle, vulnerable man at its centre.
• Ayla, a box-office hit based on a true Korean War friendship, with the same appetite for tears.
• Brother’s Keeper, a stark, unsentimental counterpoint set among schoolchildren in eastern Turkey.

The verdict

Miracle is sentimental and sometimes heavy-handed, but it is also warm, well acted and sincerely concerned with dignity and education. For viewers willing to meet its melodrama halfway, it is a moving example of Turkey’s popular family cinema.

Rating: 4/5