The Water Diviner 2014

     Joshua Connor lives with his wife in Australia of 1919.  It's just after WWI and he’s a farmer plus he is able to find water for wells.  He had three sons who fought and died in the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 four years earlier.  He meets hotel manager Ayshe in Istanbul and she helps him to get to the former battlefield in Turkey.  He is searching for the graves of his dead sons.  

     Russell Crowe also directs this movie plus he has the starring role.  There was political controversy caused by this film and over 16,000 people boycotted it on Facebook.  Descendants of the victims were angry that the Turks were portrayed as victims.  At the same time, the Turks were committing crimes against their minorities.  Film critics and Greeks also claim this film is a distortion of history.  There were other complaints because the film was released on April 24.  This is the day commemorating Armenian Genocide.  Despite all the controversy, I thought this film was good and it is also very somber in a lot of the film.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

111 min, Drama directed by Russell Crowe with Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney, Russell Crowe, Yilmaz Erdogan, Cem Yilmaz, Dylan Georgiades, Steve Bastoni, Isabel Lucas, Salih Kalyon, Megan Gale, Ryan Corr.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 63% critic 60% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2*, 4.1* out of 5* with 1114 reviews.

Special Note:  This movie was filmed in Mugla, Kayakoy and Istanbul Turkey, South Australia, New South Wales, Australia.  This film was released 100 years to the day of when Australian and New Zealand Army Corps becoming involved in a bloody war that lasted from 4/15 to 1/16.  The British lost 205,000 men, French 47,000, Turkey 251,000.  The horse that Russell Crowe rides in the Australian scenes is his own horse Honey.