‘Yellow Letters’ movie review: Artistic integrity and familial strife intersect in a gripping political thriller

İlker Çatak’s political thriller *Yellow Letters*, winner of the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear, follows a playwright and actor whose production draws government scrutiny. Through their family drama, the film examines the risks faced by critics who speak out and the choices artists make when their work may endanger them and those close to them.

Aziz, a university drama lecturer, and his wife Derya stage a play about the treatment of political prisoners, prompting a government agent to interpret it as a rebuke of the ruling party. The couple face legal pressure, signalled by the official “yellow letters” that summon people into legal action, while also dealing with their teenage daughter’s ordinary troubles. The review praises the lead actors’ chemistry and the film’s anxious atmosphere, though it finds the final performance less compelling and the film less tightly constructed than Çatak’s *The Teachers’ Lounge*.