One of my all time favorites.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

This film especially emphasizes important events or milestones in Atatürk's life from Salih Bozok's eye. Expressing way of this story very emotional. If you have got little knowledge about these years, it is not possible to cry. Of course this film shows part of a history with Atatürk's life but not telling in a epic way. First time I like Zülvi Livaneli's work. It's so hard to talk about these years objectively. And I once again admired Atatürk. Maybe because of his great success and admiration for Atatürk, people think this kind of movies not enough and ineffective. Maybe that's right I agree in some sense with this idea. Although there is no accomplished biographical movies about Atatürk, we should respect endeavor of this filmmakers. Thank you everyone who contributed to this thought- provoking story.

When I was watching film, I cry so the Veda is dramatic film.Atatürk is nice person because he is fighting to Entente Gowerment.British,France,Russia,Italy is Entente Gowerment so Veda film describe in 1881-1923.The film is wonderful so I am thanking Zülfü Livaneli and Zülfü Livaneli's crew.The Veda film is describing to this events: Atatürk's children days and Atatürk was grow.After then the Entente Gowerments are occupying to East,South and West Anatolia.The British and France occupying South Anatolia the Armenian occupying to East Anatolia and the Greek occupying West Anatolia.Atatürk is coming to Turkey in İstanbul then Atatürk is going to Samsun in 19 May 1919.After then Atatürk is fighting World Gowerment and Atatürk is wining to Kurtuluş War.So you must watch the Veda film.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk might be the only great man whose life has not been cinematized properly enough. Along with Ziya Öztan's Cumhuriyet (which is more like a Turkish independence movie than a Ataturk biograph)and Can Dundar's widely criticized Mustafa this is actually the first feature length movie on Ataturk. While Can Dundar's Mustafa was a botched up effort to knock Mustafa Kemal off his pedestal and humanize him, Livaneli's movie re-puts him on his perch. Livaneli's Veda starts when Ataurk is on his deathbed. Salih Bozok, who has been a friend to him since he was six is beside him. He calls for his son and tells him that if Ataturk passes away he will end his own life too.Then he starts to write what he recollects about the great leader. So the whole movie,at first glance,seems to be only from Salih Bozok's point of view. When it comes to history one man's point of view should be able to change the whole history you know about, shouldn't it? Ataturk was one of the greatest men of the century he lived in and we are aware of the fact that his life could not be grasped in a 120 minute movie so it should be understandable that a movie may focus on one part of his life but exactly on what side of his life Livaneli focuses? From Bozok's eyes, Livaneli offers pieces of vignettes or short, impressionistic scenes that do not sound like an eye opener. For instance, the only tangible scene about his childhood is what young Kemal thinks about a children's game like leapfrog. Apparently, the writer and the director want us to think that Ataturk was too great to bend but not modest enough not to vault over other's stooped backs. If you would like to show someone as a child prodigy there are way better means to do that. Other than that the movie does not tell you anything new about Ataturk's childhood or teenage years let alone the fact that the teenage actor,Bartunç Akbaba,playing Musta Kemal offers a pretty wooden performance. Ataturk was an "homme de guerre" and wars are an inevitable part of "gens de guerre". The only scene you see Mustafa Kemal on the war field is the Gallipoli campaign. Let alone the fact that this amazing and unbelievable victory in Turkish history looks more like a poor reconstruction scene from a documentary, most of the little scene focuses on just a ditch.When you are making a biopic your forte is supposed to be "character development." In Veda, it looks like that there are not many dynamic characters that level up over the course of the narrative.Other than the two major women who walk into Ataturk's life, no character changes a bit. At some point you think you are watching a movie about Fikriye Hanım vs. Latife Hanım. What about Ataturk's feelings on that struggle between Fikriye,who was representing the Orient and Latife who was the Occident?While Veda duly notes that Ataturk resisted the pressures of historic enmities or "atrocity-mongering between the societies" it never mentions the resistance he met while realizing his reforms.To a foreign layman, the reforms may seem quite ordinary.Those reforms were historically unprecedented and it caused a major resistance from anti-secular circles in Anatolia which still goes on as a sort of Kulturkampf today.I might prolong this comment but I guess I made myself clear.As a nation we tend to exalt our movies for no reason (like we have done for "Breath") but movies are not made for just one nation.They are made for the whole world to see. Livaneli's effort may be a worthy one(soundtracks,cinematography,costumes and some visual effects were upsides of the movie)but it's not enough to make the whole world see the great leader on the silver screen. I believe, the more movies are made on Ataturk, the better we will understand his legacy.

Mr. Livaneli, an outstanding figure in Turkey's artistic life, achieved a prominent success with his latest movie Veda. It can be clearly seen that he did not aim to tell the whole life story of Atatürk, but to express the deepness of a true friendship based on the memoirs of Salih Bozok. If you consider the movie as a documentary, you may urge yourself to find historical errors. However, that is an epic historic drama in which as viewers we will explore the images of history from Mr Livaneli's artistic point of view. From the beginning to the end, you will be impressed by the quality and beauty of the pictures as well as the music.Besides, it is worth mentioning here that after watching the international premiere of the movie in Nurnberg, General Director of FIPRESCI Klaus Eder could not hide his adoration and uttered these words: 'I wasn't expecting such an excellent production from Turkish movie makers. Direction, staging and acting were all at international level. I appreciate this remarkable success of Turkey'.As you see, not only ordinary viewers but also international authorities are proud of the movie. Of course there will be criticisms on the movie, but all 'masterpieces' are doomed to be criticised in the beginning. History will show that Livaneli and his crew signed their names under the first fictional movie on Atatürk; which is based on a true story.