Indie Corner: About Nuri Bilge Ceylan & "Once Upon a Time In Anatolia"

October 27, 2023

By Bessy ADUT

Since I started writing again at Şalom recently, I have been mostly writing mainstream movie reviews. My mainstream journey started with Barbie, Oppenheimer, Golda, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and the Agatha Christie adaptation. Then I asked my boss at Şalom, if I could also write some Independent Movie Reviews. Ivo said, yes for sure, just films of really good accomplished filmmakers.

By a total coincidence shortly after, I found out one of our most famous and accomplished film directors in the world NURI BILGE CEYLAN was coming to Los Angeles for a Q&A after a film screening of an older film of his “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia”. When I heard that he was going to be at American Cinematheque in Santa Monica, I was stoked and definitely did not want to miss this opportunity to see his film again and get to be in a Q&A with a live audience. And I am glad that I went with my co-producer and editor friend to the screening; it was a great viewing experience. We got to meet Nuri Bilge Ceylan as well, got his autograph and a few pictures together.

In the Q&A, he mentioned this was an older movie of his and he didn’t remember it too well. Definitely left a mark in my memory. There was a mixed audience, with many Turkish guests in the audience as well as Americans. This was a dark movie but funny at the same time. It’s one of those “we laugh at a lamentable situation”. Screenplay was most certainly very good, it was dramatic, there was a lot of intense good dialogue and yet we all laughed many times. I think that is a success in itself. Subplots and side stories were as strong as the main story.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is known to have taken my crew positions onto himself such as the cinematography, sound design, production, editing, writing and direction. That is very impressive. His movie "Uzak" had won the Grand Prix and Best Actor at Cannes in 2003 and that was how Ceylan started to be known as an internationally recognized director.

Now let’s see about Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da). This movie was made in 2011 as an internationally co-produced drama co-written and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan based on a true story telling the story of a group of men who search for a dead body on the Anatolian steppe.

The film was released nationwide and premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and won an award at the Grand Prix.

Story:

The movie starts with a few men having tea and hanging out as friends. Then it cuts to a group of men searching for a dead body and we find out two of them killed another. Throughout this dark but at times comedy movie, they try to find where they buried the body of Yasar Toprak. One of the men, remembers burying him near a water fountain and a round tree but as he was drunk and it was dark, along with the redundant landscapes they have a very hard time finding it so they spend the entire night looking for it.

As a side story, prosecutor Nurset tells a story to Cemal about how a woman knew exactly when she was going to die. He tells it as if she had some psychic powers and knew the day she was going to die. From the first minute the doctor hears this story, he thinks something is wrong with this picture. He thinks there is another reason behind the woman’s death after giving birth to a child, which later turns out to be a suicide. The woman had killed herself because she couldn’t handle being cheated on during her pregnancy which is really sad but the prosecutor doesn’t want to believe the truth.

Kenan wants a cigarette but Naci stops him from having one till he earns it. They stop by a village, the mayor’s daughter brings them some tea and the beauty of her face impresses all of them. Kenan starts crying then he explains to Naci that Yasar’s son, Adem was actually his and that causes a fight and Yasar gets killed. He ‘earns’ his cigarette from Naci.

In the morning, they finally find the body but they realize that it was tied from the back. Police had forgotten the corpse bags, so they had to fit the body in the trunk of the car.

There are some dark humor moments in the movie audience laughs during the movie, such as the military character counting the kilometers during this time.

Right after there is a sad moment when Adem hits Kenan with a small stone and he starts crying. That’s his son now we know.

Later during the conversation with Cemal and Nurset, when he goes to pick up medicine for his son, it turns out that his wife used his father’s heart medication to cause a heart attack on herself. She wanted to punish him by doing so but waited to give birth to his child. Meanwhile, Gulnaz confirms her husband’s body. Just a little later, we understand that Yasar was buried alive. However, Doctor Cemal doesn’t put that in his report. Belongings of Yasar is given to his wife.

This was a very realistic movie, it felt real, the most impressive part was the great cast and their performances along with the slow-paced but interesting, original story. The strangest thing was the audience finding themselves laughing in such horrid, dark moments in the movie. I certainly could sense the auter signature of Mr. Nuri Bilge Ceylan and looking forward to seeing his new movie that is being considered for the Academy Awards this coming year. “ABOUT DRY GRASSES”. I also would like to write a review on his new movie when I get a chance to see it. The female actress Merve Dizdar won a best acting award this year Cannes Best Actress Award.

In the Q&A Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan mentioned that he grew up in a similar village and he felt close to the characters in the story that is based on true events. Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s co-writer was a doctor and had experience living in a similar village setting while obtaining his license.

The film is inspired by Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in the West with the title. Nuri Bilge Ceylan also references Anton Chekhov as his storytelling style inspiration.

The film was produced by Zeyno Film in co-production with Bosnia, NBC Film, 1000 Volt Post Production, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, Imaj and Fida Film.

Filming took 11 weeks in Kirikkale and it was shot on CinemaScope.

The movie had great reviews and in 2016, the film was honored as the 54th best film of the 21st century, from a poll of 177 film critics from around the world. Just making it to this list is amazing. And this is my first independent feature film featured here, along with my mainstream film reviews that will continue.

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Indie Corner: About Nuri Bilge Ceylan & "Once Upon a Time In Anatolia"

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