İhsan Şakar

Before the Night dépeint la vie ordinaire sous l'état d'urgence, du point de vue de ses trois personnages. Gulbîn, une artiste peintre vivant avec ses parents, tente de se frayer un chemin dans la vie, tout en peignant de manière obsessionnelle le portrait de sa mère en s'inspirant du tableau Mother de Whistler. La mère sert de modèle à sa fille tout en essayant d'isoler sa maison du bruit des bombes, en vain. Le père, dont la santé se détériore, tente de réimaginer sa ville frappée par la guerre à l'aide de vieilles photographies qu'il a prises.

Osman can understand his mother tongue, Kurdish, but cannot speak it, and he speaks Turkish, which happens to be his second language, but cannot understand it. As a result of this condition of his, Osman starts to fail at handling two concurrent tasks. Just like he cannot respond to his patrons while he is working, he cannot engage in a conversation with his friends whilst they are having coffee together. Even though he wants to get married, he fails at sustaining a long-term relationship with women whom he meets. Osman’s life starts to change after a customer tells him that she could help him with his obsession.

The story of Adem, a poor and hunchbacked man who follows the legendary Pirebok, prompted to him in childhood, to start a family, and his paths cross with a woman who managed to survive with her daughter fleeing the war and took refuge in a neighboring country.