About Dry Grasses (2023) review

Art instructor Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu), who works at a small school in frigid eastern Turkey and wants to be transferred back to Istanbul, is accused, along with housemate and co-worker Kenan (Musab Ekici), of having "inappropriate contact" with two female students, Sevim (Ece Bagci) and Aylin (Birsen Sürme), which is unsettling news to both of them; meanwhile, Samet tries to "set up" Kenan with crippled English teacher Nuray (Merve Dizdar), but finds himself attracted to her instead.  There is solid commentary in there about the nature of education in modern times, especially regarding the supposed "power" children believe they have over their superiors when they make exaggerated claims (and are taken seriously) and the ripple effect it has on the educators who then feel threatened and paranoid, but Ceylan (working off a script he co-wrote with his wife Ebru and Akın Aksu) never heard of the term "brevity" and stretches it out to the point where the kids' complaints are pushed off far into the distance.  He then switches to the Samet-Nuray relationship - as if tired with the in-school controversy - where she presents to him her left-wing views over dinner and drinks (she was injured in a terrorist attack) while the relatively conservative Samet humors her ... before literally breaking the fourth wall to swallow a male-enhancement drug.  It's trying to be this "examination" of fragile masculinity, but all it does is dance around the subject - in the end, Samet is "freed" from his icy cage, deservedly or not.  Fittingly, the line "Why did we get into this profession?" has gone through my head entirely too often, which I'm sure isn't uncommon....