Archive of films Once Upon a Time in Anatolia / Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da

Turkey / Bosnia and Herzegovina
2011, 157 min

Section: Horizons
Year: 2011

Turkey’s top contemporary director returned this May to Cannes and took away the Grand Prix ex aequo. His bewitching and free-flowing "metaphysical road movie” is also an unorthodox crime drama focusing on a group of men who, on a dark and blustery night, search deserted roads of southern Anatolia for a corpse.

Synopsis

Turkey’s most distinguished contemporary director returned to Cannes this May to compete with his new film, a work eagerly awaited particularly by the critics. In the extensive prologue to his "metaphysical road movie,” Ceylan introduces a group of men searching on a dark and blustery night for a dead body buried somewhere along the deserted mountain roads of southern Anatolia. Prosecutor Nusret, police commissioner Naci and Dr Cemal have dragged Kenan along with them in the hope he’ll be able to show them where he hid the body. In this, his sixth film, Ceylan again has no intention of pandering to the viewer, who has to figure out the film’s time frames and sequence of events for himself. In this unconventional crime story, whose entrancing visuals, as in Ceylan’s previous works, betray the Turkish filmmaker’s passion for photography, a series of seemingly insignificant details captures the perceptive viewer’s attention by casting a dusky light on the crime itself and on the motives which led to its perpetration.

About the director

Nuri Bilge Ceylan (b. 1959, Istanbul) graduated in electrotechnical engineering at Bosphorus University and subsequently studied film for two years at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in Istanbul. He made the short film Cocoon (Koza, 1995), which he followed up with the feature films affiliated in his "quest trilogy” – The Small Town (Kasaba, 1997), Clouds of May (Mayis sikintisi, 1999) and Distant (Uzak, 2003). He turned out the film Climates (Iklimer) in 2006. His film Distant took away the Grand Prix from Cannes, where his Three Monkeys (Üç maymun) won Best Director in 2008. The Small Town, Distant, Climates and Three Monkeys have all been screened at Karlovy Vary. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia won the Grand Prix ex aequo at this year’s Cannes IFF together with the Dardenne brothers’ film The Kid with a Bike.

Contacts

Zeyno Film
Baskurt sk.Urgup palas apt.19/3 Cihangir, 34433, Istanbul
Turkey
Tel: +90 212 252 455 6
Fax: +90 212 252 455 7
E-mail: [email protected]
www: zeynofilm.com

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About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Horizons

Director:	Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Screenplay:	Ercan Kesal, Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Dir. of Photography:	Gökhan Tiryaki
Editor:	Bora Gökşingöl, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Producer:	Zeynep Özbatur Atakan
Production:	Zeyno Film
Cast:	Muhammet Uzuner, Yılmaz Erdoğan, Taner Birsel, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Fırat Tanış, Ercan Kesal
Contact:	Zeyno Film