'Can music make people come together?' Film asks

"Music makes the people come together. Music mix the bourgeoisie and the rebel." These lines from Madonna's 2000 pop anthem "Music" can very well be appropriated to this week's new release "Bana Git De" (Tell Me To Go), feature drama directed by Handan Öztürk, as well as many other feature films in the last decade that use music as a connector in an ethnically diverse country that is becoming polarized and disconnected more each passing day.

Dozens of different ethnic identities, coupled with the rich history of Anatolia that has served many civilizations and many people, make Turkey the host of a diversity of music and a plethora of instruments. Sadly, the multiplicity is hardly evident in today's popular music that rarely uses ethnic melodies, if they do at all. Some Turkish filmmakers have been using music as a strong metaphor for change and loss. Öztürk is one of them.

Music and musicians take center stage in "Bana Git De," with two leading characters taking the road in different directions, with music leading them and giving them some needed ammunition on their journeys. Ali (Tayanç Ayaydın) is a guitarist from Istanbul, he is an aimless wanderer who is tired of repetition and has lost inspiration from music, something that once gave him a sense of direction. 

Ali finds that the only way to find himself or lose himself to become fresh again, is to leave Istanbul and go back home. As he begins his journey from west to east, Leyal (Atiye Yılmaz) begins a journey from the east to the west. A singer from a small city in eastern Turkey, Leyal has ambitions to sing to bigger crowds, and be inspired by many others like her in the big city.

Ali and Leyal's paths intersect as they form a brief but strong connection, only to lose one...