‘Yellow Letters’ Review: Germany Plays Turkey in a Stirring and Surprising Political Drama
Variety | 14.02.2026 04:00
In the riveting family drama “Yellow Letters,” German-born Turkish director İlker Çatak employs a culturally tilt-shifted backdrop for his tale of authoritarian crackdowns. The film announces, upfront via enormous on-screen text, that its setting is “Berlin as Ankara,” with the German capital standing in (sans disguise) for its Turkish equivalent, as though the film itself were in political exile. The result is a drama of surprising universality, in which a well-to-do couple becomes the target of unjust dismissals and persecution for political wrongthink against the Turkish regime. Çatak’s focus, all the while, remains on the intimate outcomes of this dynamic, and the way government mechanics are weaponized and inflicted in personal ways.
