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Evelyn Duran

Introduction To Special Education

Movie Critique Paper

Movie: Miracles in cell No.7

Saturday February 02, 2022

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This film focuses on a father who suffers a mental illness, which by the way wasn’t

specified in the movie but from watching it I think the protagonist, Mahamat had a disorder in

which he had the same brain as a 6-year-old, therefore causing him to act like one. His

daughters’ classmates would call him rude names and make fun of him. Ova, his daughter,

wanted to buy a backpack but it was too expensive. Mahamat made candy apples to sell at the

parade the next day to be able to buy the backpack, once they had the right amount of money,

they went to buy it but the commander had already bought if for his daughter. Afterwards,

Mahamat was herding the sheep’s and saw the backpack and the girl saw how much he really

wanted it, so she started playing around with him and had him chase her for it. Eventually she

climbed a tall rock and slipped and sadly passed away. Since she was last seen with Mahamat

everyone blamed him and accused him of killing the commander’s daughter. He went to prison

and was treated horribly but the last thing he told Ova while he was getting taken away was that

the one-eyed giant saw it. He was beat and degraded on. No one believed him when he tried to

say he was innocent. The only person who did was Ova, she believed her father was a good man

and would never hurt anyone let alone kill. Ova tried to get the man in the one-eyed giant rock

confess he saw but he disappeared for a while. There were different ways in which they tried to

show his innocence, so he’s not executed. At the end of the film, they planned to have someone

else get executed instead of Ova’s father, one of his cellmates volunteered.

The disability that Ova’s father had was that he had a brain the size of a bean, he thinks

like a 6-year-old. Him having this disability makes it hard for Ova and her grandmother. Ova is

constantly bullied by her classmates nonstop for having a “dumb dad”. Ova although, she did not

let them get to her, she loves her father for how he is and always will. Her father takes the most

hurt out of his disability, while out in the street he would get hit and called terrible names for
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being himself. Ova’s father is portrayed as the “dumb one” in the town, as the clown even.

Society can erase prejudice towards disabilities by accepting them as normal people instead of

dangerous or “dumb” people. The most frustrated in the movie over the disability would have to

have been the warden and one of Mehemet cell mates. At first, they hated Mehemet for what he

“did”, but then realized that he was innocent and would never tell a lie. They tried their hardest

to prove him innocent so he can be reunited with his daughter.

What I thought of the movie was that it’s one of the best films I have ever seen. The

storyline and plot twists keep you engage even if you don’t speak the language Turkish. The

relationship between Ova and her father is like no other. Right from the beginning of the movie I

was able to tell that Ova’s father would do anything for her in the blink of an eye. Also, I

admired the amount of people willing to risk their lives to get Ova and her father reunited. How

the warden of the jail was willing to risk his job just so Ova and her father can see each other.

How Mehemet’s cellmate gave up his life so Mehemet can finish his with his daughter. I could

not even keep track of how many times I cried during this movie, its truly one of the most

beautiful movies I’ve ever seen with such good representation on how people with disabilities

are treated differently. I would 100% recommend this movie to everyone, I honestly thought I

wasn’t going to enjoy is since it was in Turkish, but I loved it and hated it at the same time since

it made me cry so much.

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Citation

Miracles in cell. No. 7 (Netflix)