To What Extent Do You Help Others?

The overarching question posed in the film is as follows: does an individual or society have a duty to altruism, even if it’s at their expense? The question is interesting, because we see Aydin (intellectual or enlightened in Turkish) refer to himself as a product of his environment. “I didn’t create other people’s poor living conditions. God made this world. I just live in it.” This scene reminded me of the Russian film, Durak, where in a sequence of moral decision-making, the antagonist justifies her actions, stating, “It’s not us who are bad, it’s life that’s bad.”

Is Aydin responsible for the pitfalls of those around him? Does he have a moral obligation to offer forbearance to his tenants? The question being asked here is in a sense no different from Lars von Trier’s Dogville, where we are presented with Nicole Kidman as a token of prosperity and luck, and the townsfolk as a token of poverty and misfortune. They use her, emotionally and physically, because in their minds, despite their actions, she ultimately still has more than them.

And so, to what extent do you help others, even if it is at your expense?