Product Details

• Actors: Erkan Can, Güven Kiraç
• Directors: Özer Kiziltan
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Koch Lorber Films
• DVD Release Date: December 9, 2008
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001FWVKVA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,848 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Takva: A Man's Fear of God" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Muharrem (Erkan Can) lives a solitary existence, strictly adhering to the most severe Islamic doctrines. To his surprise, a religious leader hires him as a rent collector, where he is given Western-style suits, a cell phone and a car with a driver. Thrown suddenly into the modern world, the naïve Muharrem is exposed to temptations and hypocrisies, causing his fear of God to eat away at his senses, and threaten his sanity.

DVD EXTRAS: Interview with director Özer Kiziltan, Original Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important and disturbing (WARNING: SPOILER!), November 1, 2009

By 

Dawoud Kringle "Renegade Sufi" (New York City) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Takva: A Man's Fear of God (DVD)

I happen to be a Muslim who is associated with the general "sect" of Islam that the characters in this film belong to: Sufism (the mystic branch of Islam). I am also an American born convert; which perhaps give me a perspective others may not have.

What I see in this tragedy are the result of a failing. This is not failings within Islam, but very human failings.

The seed of this was Muharrem's incapacity to correctly interpret what is happening to him. He would have erotic dreams (the cause of which could be anything from psychic attacks by djinn to simply not having an outlet for his natural desires), and believed that he was committing a sin. In authentic Islam, there is nothing to support this idea. This ignorance, supported by societal stigma of a pseudo-morality, caused him to experience deeper shame. This increased the more he found himself in situations wherein he had to resolve conflicts with his beliefs that he was incapable of finding without help. And he had no real help. His Sheikh was one of those religious leaders who become too wrapped up in the external appearance of his station. Perhaps he couldn't see the enormity of what was happening, but the fact was that he couldn't correctly interpret Muhareem's dilemna, nor could he offer advice and guidance that was so desperately needed.

And of course, Muhareem was not strong enough to withstand the impact of the world he was thrust into - alone and without experience. He was a humble man, just strong enough to adhere to his religion with a beautiful simplicity and sincerity, but too weak to be what can best be described as a spiritual warrior.

Thus, his sanity was shattered.

What was truly ironic was the woman in his erotic dreams, the woman who tormented him. In his dreams, she was a wanton, loose, immoral whore who he used to statisfy his lusts. In reality, for this woman did exist, she was the daughter of the Sheikh - whom the Sheikh had seriously contemplated an arranged marriage to Muhareem! Muhareem, in an act of exagerated piety, had taken a vow of chastity (something else that is foreign to Islam) and never learned of the Sheikh's suggestion.

Had poor Muhareem - or more specifically, Muhareem's Sheikh, to whom he was so devoted - realized both the causes of his problems, and their practical and very easily achieved solutions (all of which are in perfect keeping with Islamic beliefs), been explained, understood, and implimented, Muhareem would have not only ended up a much happier man than he ever was, but would have become strong enough to do the work his Sheikh assigned to him. With no contradiction to his Islamic beliefs.

What worries me is that there will be some who see this film and will interpret it as invective against Islam. This is a serious mistake.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe what we call the devil is mankind itself., January 18, 2010

By 

Daiho - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Takva: A Man's Fear of God (DVD)

Takva is a simple film about a simple man, the assistant to an Istanbul sack dealer who at middle age has given up the idea of marriage, who lives alone in the home he was raised, the only home he has ever known. Muharrem is a humble, pious man, a man who strives to be always conscious of the presence of Allah, a man of taqwa. He pays careful attention to his religious obligations and treats others with respect and gentleness. His contented life is disturbed only by the occasional erotic imaginings of his sleep.

That is, until the Sheikh arrives. The head of a local Sufi monastic order and proprietor of a large number of landholdings on which the order supports itself, the Sheikh is in need of a rent collector. He sets his eye on Muharrem, trusting such a guileless man can serve the order scrupulously. Overwhelmed with the enormity of the responsibility but eager to please both Allah and the Sheikh, Muharrem accepts and learns quite quickly the job is not what he imagined, the world far more complicated than he could have dreamed.

[SPOILER ALERT]

In order to play the part, the boy-like Muharrem is outfitted with designer suits, accessories, a car and personal driver. As he makes his rounds to meet with tenants, he finds to his distress he is given preferential treatment for being associated with a great religious leader. He finds the order satisfied to tolerate a drunken tenant who pays, but has no patience for a pious family financially hobbled by illness. He discovers his old boss at the sack factory, whom he once served and admired, has no reservations about grossly overcharging a client. He finds himself solicited by unknown businessmen seeking the order's favor through him. When Muharrem brings his concerns to the Sheikh, the great religious leader offers no consolation, no means of helping Muharrem escape his dilemma. In order to avoid soiling his own reputation, the Sheikh sloughs the responsibility onto Muharrem, telling him that Allah will guide his way.

Veteran actor Erkan Can does a superb job bringing the rent collector to life, transforming a meek and servile office assistant into to a freshly suited businessman on a slow boil to a hair-pulling, face-slapping nervous breakdown. The anxious mood of the film is intensified by a dark score and the claustrophobic air of confined spaces such as temples, offices, apartment flats, and narrow market streets.

In the end, Muharrem finds himself trapped between faith and duty, between ethics and survival, a haunted place we all visit early in our adult lives. Most of us chip away at the ethics in order to live another day. A few of us are brave enough to damn the job. And a few of us just don't make it.

Towards the end of the film, Muharrem begins to understand what has been happening. "I thought the fear of God would put me in order. I just wanted to be a good person. God is everywhere. You have to do what He wants, and not do what He doesn't want. Then you're a good person in this world and will find peace in the other world. But it doesn't work. It's not possible. There is always the devil. Maybe what we call the devil is mankind itself."

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Serving God and mammon..., December 9, 2008

By 

Mary M - See all my reviews

This review is from: Takva: A Man's Fear of God (DVD)

This is a well conceived film with good direction and acting. Its strength is its revelation of Islam's hold upon its members and the lengths a devotee goes, on an everyday basis, to live up to and be guided by a very exacting code. Perhaps all religions exist in order to give meaning to life's questions and strength to man's morals. In the film the differences between living a contemplative and strict life and also having to deal with modern realities presents big emotional problems for an 'average' man. The scenes in the mosques, the streets around Istanbul, the daily rituals between people, etc. make an extremely interesting film. Highly recommended.