Until I Lose My Breath

Serap, a garment factory worker, has one big hope that keeps her going: to move into a new house with her long-distance truck driver dad. The fact is that living with her older sister and brother-in-law has become ever more unbearable, added to which she is forced to give them all her earnings. Precarious living conditions gradually lead Serap into greater isolation and bitterness. In her skilful portrayal of the most elemental human emotions – belonging, disappointment and anger among them – director Emine Emel Balcı tells us the tragedy of individuals rendered worthless.

The writer, Lauren Berlant, describes films of this sort with their repetitive presentation of the ordinary actions of everyday life as ‘situation tragedies’. Unlike situation comedies, in which repetition ultimately leads to change, situation tragedies cannot be expected to end with a new and different set of circumstances. Yet however inextricable things may appear, the questions posed by the tragedy mark the beginning of new aspirations. On this basis, it is impossible to remain indifferent to the story of the angry anti-hero, Serap.