Ten years after being thrown out of her parental home, Nur hears that her mother is at death’s door. Taking her young daughter with her, Nur hurries back to her father’s world to see, and reconcile with her mother before it is too late. While the universal theme of mother-daughter relationships lies at the centre of the film, this is underpinned by an allusive subtext of incest, one of most common but least addressed social problems in Turkey. The individual stories of the family members combine with a sense of hope fuelled by tragedy to paint a portrait of the socially disconnected.

‘The Visitor can boast not only an extremely strong and cohesive cast, but also the director’s close attention to visual detail (a feature lacking in other contestants) ... The director has built a true cinematic poem from the everyday life of a poor and unfriendly family; his reward is certainly deserved... After all, apart from our prize, The Visitor has also won the second most significant award of the festival, the Special Grand Jury Award. The first award was given to a clearly weaker Mad Love by Philippe Ramos, France, but it cannot shadow the highlights of the Turkish movie.’
Dmytro Desiateryk
FIPRESCI Jury member, Montreal World Film Festival

‘The characterizations and performances (in The Visitor) breathe enough dramatic life into things to make it (an) unsettling but thought-provoking experience... The performances are superb, and entirely respectful of the care and compassion which Eryilmaz has devoted to his characters - although, in this film which pitches the essential humanity of women against the inhumanity of men, the treatment of the women is inevitably more compassionate and nuanced than that of the two men... ‘
Jonathan Holland
Hollywood Reporter

‘In The Visitor, Eryılmaz focuses above all on the themes of death and womanhood, but also deals with a number of other socio-political issues such as man and the city in the context of family, parent-child relationships, gender roles in society, sexual abuse and the march of modernity. In the same way that we tend to relegate these issues to the back burner in day-to-day life, Eryılmaz addresses them with a light but palpable touch... With the poignant performances of an outstanding cast and its far-reaching story, The Visitor is a strong film that manages to staunch many wounds while, more importantly, inviting us into the silence of all sexual abuse victims prevented from talking.
Büşra Şavlı
FilmLoverss