WALLS

Viewed from a distance, ANA and KERIM seem to have a perfect home, a perfect world created by two people who love each other, which operates in accordance with clearly set rules. Kerim is the one who sets the rules and limits Ana’s contact to the outside world. By the time she starts rebelling against these rules, the world starts to crumble. With every newly broken rule, Ana is reminded of how it feels to be free and starts craving this more and more. Ana is a housewife, spending her days completing different tasks in her apartment. Her only escape is her daily visits to the local store to shop for groceries and the newspaper Ana regularly reads. She agreed to all of Kerim’s rules. The most difficult one to deal with is the decision not to have children, since Kerim is of the opinion that a child would complicated their perfect world. Ana’s wish to have children turns into a mistake each time she dares to say it out loud, since it triggers Kerim’s anger. Every time she breaks one of the rules, Ana gets punished. Still, the punishments are never physically abusive. Breaking the rules starts with Ana’s secret stash of coins she keeps. Ana uses the hidden money to buy forbidden items such as makeup. Apart from that, Ana starts making a few unintentional mistakes, but the punishment becomes more rigorous each time she is caught. The most hurtful part is that Kerim refuses to be intimate with her since, in his opinion, some mistakes are bigger than others, and the same also goes for consequences. Ana’s real rebellion starts after she realizes that she was inequitably punished. Ana’s life is thus narrowed down to two questions: Is this really violence and is it possible to report it to somebody who would protect her? The response she gets is that the relationship she is living in is indeed violent, however there is no institution that could protect a person from such a form of violence, meaning that Ana must to find a way out all by herself.