Reading a Law Film in Cinematic Context as a Commentary on the Decline of Liberal Democracy and the Rule of Law: Emin Alper’s Burning Days (2022) Read Against John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Emin Alper’s feature film Burning Days (Turkey, 2022) features a young, ambitious prosecutor arriving in a remote town in the wilderness where he immediately encounters brutal local machoism and deep-seated corruption. Confronting the gang that controls the town’s water supply, he is determined to enforce the law and save the community. This familiar Western plot echoes that of the classic 1961 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. But the contemporary representative of the rule of law does not overcome wild, ruthless local customs and does not secure prosperity. On the contrary: along with the town’s independent journalist, he is driven out of town by a crowd, hopelessly running for his life. Burning Days reflects a reality in which the rule of law is undermined and quickly losing ground. Contrasting the current demise of the rule of law with the Western fairy tale of its heroic foundation, the film suggests that contemporary heroes are vain, detached, and preoccupied with their own honour, rather than with the human dignity they should stand for. In their competition for honour, they are bound to lose to the local villains.