She fed him poisoned honey. Forty years later, he wants to rot in her garden.
Marife, who lived alone in a mountain house in the Black Sea region for forty years, was abandoned by Ilyas, whom she had fallen in love with in her youth, due to an illness she contracted while making plans to marry him. This illness was a plan prepared by Yahya, who secretly loved Marife, to reveal Ilyas's true face. While Marife lost her beauty with the poisoned honey she was fed, Ilyas's love ended with that beauty. While Ilyas practically ran away from where he lived, Marife retreated into a furious seclusion. Forty years later, Ilyas's son Ateş brought his father's body to Trabzon. His father's will was to be buried in Marife's garden. However, Marife's response to this will was full of anger.
Acting
Hatice Aslan's decades of rage in silence.
Cinematography
Mist-choked Black Sea mountains as character.
Direction
Müge Uğurlar's patient, unforgiving gaze.
Director
Müge Uğurlar
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Black Sea region's reputation for stubborn, storytelling women and honey production makes Marife's weaponization of both deeply rooted in place.
The title 'Derûn' derives from Persian for 'interior/innermost' — the film's true horror is not the disfigurement but what beauty concealed.
TR
