Elephants and Grass

Havva, a marathon runner, tries to find sponsors for an important contest, so she can help her sick brother with the prize money. He has been wounded during his military service in South East Turkey. Havva only finds one sponsor, a fivestar hotel in Istanbul. In exchange for food, she will wear the hotel logo on her shirt. Quite a lot is wrong in the hotel: apart from the monthly protection money that has to be paid to a minister, a drug smuggler, mafioso Sabit, tries to take over the hotel and its casino from the owner, Mr Ali. He can’t manage willingly, so Sabit tries the hard way. He hires hitmen to kill Mr Ali. What follows is a stream of violence, plots, corruption and attacks with which the marathon runner Havva becomes unwittingly involved. Zaim’s socially critical thriller, his second feature after the prizewinning Somersault in a Coffin, is based on a true corruption scandal (the Susurluk scandal from 1996). Cast, script and editing are all both powerful and explosive.The elephants in the title refer to the strong people in society who can mercilessly trample on the grass (the small man).