The Unfinished Walk

Korkut Laçin, who fled abroad in 1975 after a laboratory fire, accused of being an arsonist during the coalition of the right-wing and fascist parties, is repatriated to Turkey two years later on a port in the Far East by the island police after getting stabbed by his friends who hold him responsible for the death of a Portuguese sailor. The course of events start when Korkut Laçin, after serving six years in jail, comes to Çeşme on July 20, 1983 to find his childhood friend Sedat Bender, who he protected and kept an eye on all through his youth, and ends in a hospital room nine days later. Korkut Laçin’s ostensible aim is to take over a suitcase kept by Sedat, which belongs to himself. However, there are many people who feel uncomfortable about this visitor from the past whom they all want to forget: Most of all Sedat, who is planning to be elected as an MP from a right-wing party by denying his former political identity at the first election to be held after the September 12^th military coup d’etat; Sedat’s wife, Lerzan who’s planning to get a divorce; Asım who is unhappy about Korkut Laçin’s legendary reputation at the boarding school; Cem who can’t bear the fact that Lerzan – who he is filled with admiration for – is in love with Korkut; and Hasan, who has witnessed Korkut’s fearlessness and whom Korkut noticed his horror during the interrogation. Meanwhile, Korkut Laçin is after the answer of the question that’s been sprouting the doubts in his mind about his personality for years: Whether or not he was laughing when he was punished to left inside a well at the orphanage, when he pressed his hand onto the hot stove challenging the assistant principle in order for him to amend the unjust disciplinary suspension he assigned to the class, when he jumped head down into a well, when he struggled against the interrogators who were trying to break his arm in the cell… Hence, he asks everyone - from the orphanage guard to his friends from boarding school and Hasan who had to watch him being tortured - the same question.

The events that form the dramatic essence of The Unfinished Walk are jammed into a short period of time – 10 days -, just like the second novel of the writer, The Belated Dead. However, this time we see three narrators, like different camera angles: The writer, Korkut Laçin, and the other characters in the story with the testimonies they give at the public prosecutor’s office. Possibly, this is why The Unfinished Walk is the most cinematographic one among Mehmet Eroğlu’s novels and it has been adapted to wide screen with some minor changes and its script was also written by Mehmet Eroğlu. The title named Eightieth Step and it won The Best Turkish Film and International Scriptwriters and Critics – Fibresci- awards at İstanbul Film Festival in 1996.

“I’m eighteen and I underestimate myself. I still haven’t succeeded in finding a reason, to make my existence significant and to save my life from being a biological burden. What’s the secret of life? … What could be more terrifying than being only a human being and sharing the destiny of a creature with billions of alike? Should a man be satisfied just to be alive? Isn’t the twentieth century in need of saviors and knights?”

Nothing can reveal the theme of The Unfinished Walk – which can be summarized as ‘the act of being a savior’ - more openly than this quotation from an essay Korkut Laçin wrote when he was eighteen years old. This novel is also a significant footprint in along the way of investigating the young activist stereotype. The most evident characteristic of a generation that can only express the meaning of its existence through being saviors is dramatically emphasized through Korkut Laçin’s story: “Seeing everything from the eye of a savior brings a degree of looking at life from beyond limits of mankind, rather than reaching salvation.” “Secrets, there are no secrets. We’re all human…” The novel ends with these words by Korkut Laçin.