Once upon a time in Anatolia (2011)
(Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da)
Country: TUR/BOSN
Technical: col/2.35:1 158m
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast: Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel
Synopsis:
A doctor and a prosecutor accompany a regional police chief with various officers and two suspects as they journey to the location where one or both of them have buried a body. As the three vehicles thread their way through a stormy Anatolian countryside by night, it becomes increasingly plain that the now sober suspect has no clear recollection of where exactly he left the victim he has confessed to killing.
Review:
There is far more to this slow, meditative procedural than meets the eye, and by the end one begins to suspect that the women so absent from most of the action hold the key to the reality behind what we see, particularly so far as the doctor is concerned. He and the prosecutor have a recurring discussion about a woman who apparently died because she determined to do so, a fact as unexplained as the murder that takes up so much of the characters' time. However, gradually we become aware that her identity and motives are easily guessable even though no autopsy was performed. As we listen to the crunchings and squelchings as the film's own corpse is treated to just such a procedure, we wonder at how much closer to the truth it gets us. We are left with an abiding impression of the messiness of human existence, officials doing their work but not really getting to the mystery of things except in their quieter 'off-duty' moments.
(Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da)
Country: TUR/BOSN
Technical: col/2.35:1 158m
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast: Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel
Synopsis:
A doctor and a prosecutor accompany a regional police chief with various officers and two suspects as they journey to the location where one or both of them have buried a body. As the three vehicles thread their way through a stormy Anatolian countryside by night, it becomes increasingly plain that the now sober suspect has no clear recollection of where exactly he left the victim he has confessed to killing.
Review:
There is far more to this slow, meditative procedural than meets the eye, and by the end one begins to suspect that the women so absent from most of the action hold the key to the reality behind what we see, particularly so far as the doctor is concerned. He and the prosecutor have a recurring discussion about a woman who apparently died because she determined to do so, a fact as unexplained as the murder that takes up so much of the characters' time. However, gradually we become aware that her identity and motives are easily guessable even though no autopsy was performed. As we listen to the crunchings and squelchings as the film's own corpse is treated to just such a procedure, we wonder at how much closer to the truth it gets us. We are left with an abiding impression of the messiness of human existence, officials doing their work but not really getting to the mystery of things except in their quieter 'off-duty' moments.
(Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da)
Country: TUR/BOSN
Technical: col/2.35:1 158m
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast: Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel
Synopsis:
A doctor and a prosecutor accompany a regional police chief with various officers and two suspects as they journey to the location where one or both of them have buried a body. As the three vehicles thread their way through a stormy Anatolian countryside by night, it becomes increasingly plain that the now sober suspect has no clear recollection of where exactly he left the victim he has confessed to killing.
Review:
There is far more to this slow, meditative procedural than meets the eye, and by the end one begins to suspect that the women so absent from most of the action hold the key to the reality behind what we see, particularly so far as the doctor is concerned. He and the prosecutor have a recurring discussion about a woman who apparently died because she determined to do so, a fact as unexplained as the murder that takes up so much of the characters' time. However, gradually we become aware that her identity and motives are easily guessable even though no autopsy was performed. As we listen to the crunchings and squelchings as the film's own corpse is treated to just such a procedure, we wonder at how much closer to the truth it gets us. We are left with an abiding impression of the messiness of human existence, officials doing their work but not really getting to the mystery of things except in their quieter 'off-duty' moments.