London 2011 | Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Ceylan’s most audacious film yet is a measured, masterly account of a police investigation, Chekhovian in its piercing insights, subtle wit and thematic richness. 

Alongside The Tree of Life, Ceylan's Grand Prix-winner was widely regarded as the most rewardingly audacious film in Cannes this year. Its lithe if meticulously constructed story, starting at dusk and ending around the middle of the next day, follows the search by police, prosecutors, a doctor and the alleged culprit for the body of a man buried in the Anatolian steppes (but where exactly?) after a brawl. From this slow yet wholly engrossing account of a rambling, shambling investigation that steadily shifts focus from a group of mostly garrulous characters to the aforementioned doctor, Ceylan fashions a richly quizzical meditation on a range of interwoven themes: the concerns and manners of provincial life; our relationship with the places we inhabit; the balancing of ethics and pragmatism; our need to hold on to the banalities of life when faced with misfortune, absurdity and death. And more; even by his own remarkable standards, this is hugely impressive. The piercing insights and dry wit, the feel for the subtle rhythms of human interaction, the beautiful, superbly expressive Scope images confirm Ceylan's status as a master of cinema.


Geoff Andrew


Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Running time 157 min 
Year 2011
Directed by: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Country: Turkey-Bosnia-Herzegovina 
Writer: Ercan Kesal, Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan 
Cast: Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel, Firat Tanis 
Distributor: New Wave Films 

London IFF 2011 | Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Oct 17)

Mon 17

| 20:30

| Vue Screen 7

FULLY BOOKED


It's a police procedural by the Turkish film-maker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, which means that it is long and deliberate and pruned of anything resembling CSI-style thrills. But stay with it. Follow in the footsteps of Ceylan's protagonists (the cops, doctor, prosecutor and suspects) as they hunt a body in the barrens and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia casts an extraordinary spell. It's arguably the director's most muscular, most fully realised film to date, and deservedly won the grand prix at the 2011 Cannes film festival (a prize it shared with the Dardennes' similarly fine The Kid With a Bike, which also screens at this year's LFF).

Turkish Film for Academy Award Nomination

The Academy Award [1] for Best Foreign Language Film will be nominated for out of this list of seven films.

Selim Demirdelen 'Kavşak', Orhan Oğuz 'Hayde Bre', Derviş Zaim 'Gölgeler ve Suretler', Handan İpekçi 'Çınar Ağacı', Nuri Bilge Ceylan  'Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da', Seyfi Teoman  'Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz' and  Seren Yüce 'Çoğunluk'.

[1] The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to afeature-length motion picture produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.

Unlike other Academy Awards, the Best Foreign Language Film Award is not presented to a specific individual. It is accepted by the winning film's director, but is considered an award for the submitting country as a whole. Over the years, the Best Foreign Language Film Award and its predecessors have been given almost exclusively to European films: out of the 63 Awards handed out by the Academy since 1947 to foreign language films, fifty one have gone to European films, five to Asian films, three to African films and three to films from the Americas.

London Film Festival 2011 | Law of the Border

Mavi Boncuk |


London Film Festival 2011

Law of the Border 


 Tue 25 | 18:30 | NFT3


Powerful and radical smuggling drama from Turkey, starring the great Yilmaz Güney, rescued and restored by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation. The happy outcome of another rescue mission by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation, created to help archives in developing countries preserve their cinema heritage, Law of the Border marked the beginning of Turkey's 'New Cinema' movement, focusing on the country's profound social problems. Brought to light by WCF advisory board member Fatih Akin and restored by L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna from the wreckage of a single positive print which survived the Turkish military coup d'état in 1980, the film highlights the deprivations of daily life in South-East Turkey – lack of education, no agriculture, unemployment – and their solution: smuggling. Akad's film has the stylistic qualities of an epic Western – '...a work of great visual and dramatic force, of terrific purity and ferocity,' as Kent Jones, executive director of the WCF, puts it – and was a positive influence on the film's scriptwriter and star, Yilmaz Güney, about to make his own directing debut and become Turkey's best-known radical filmmaker and thorn in the government's side, condemned to a life of political imprisonment and eventual exile in Switzerland.


Clyde Jeavons


Law of the Border
Country: Turkey:  Running time: 74min Year :1966
Director: Ömer Lüfti Akad:  Writer: Ömer Lüfti Akad, Yilmaz Güney
Cast: Yilmaz Güney, Pervin Par, Hikmet Olgun, Erol Tas, Tuncel Kurtiz:

TIFF 2011 | When We Leave

When We Leave
Feo Aladag
Country: Turkey/Germany
Year: 2010
Runtime: 119 min minutes
Screens as part of Human Rights Watch


Based on a highly publicized honour killing in Berlin in 2005, When We Leave stars Sibel Kekilli as Umay, a young Turkish Muslim woman who courageously decides to leave her abusive husband in Istanbul and join her family in Germany with her young son. Her reunion with her parents and siblings soon reveals that cultural ties are strong and her family’s love is not unconditional. Umay’s struggle for independence in a patriarchal society bound by tradition and pride makes for a passionately dramatic film that provocatively explores issues of family, community values and personal freedom.


See Also

Turkish Cinema Newsletter: Audience Award for Feo Aladag's Die ...

Feb 01, 2011

DIE FREMDE by Feo Aladag, Germany | AUDIENCE AWARD EUROPEAN FEATURE FILMS | 20 000 € (Ville d'Angers, Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma et Le Monde) to the French distributor for the promotion of the ...

http://turkfilm.blogspot.com/

When We Leave (Die Fremde) by Feo Aladag

Jan 22, 2010

Feo Aladag was born in 1972 in Vienna. She began her career as an actress, completing her training in London and Vienna from 1990-1995. While studying Acting she completed a Master in Psychology and Journalism, continuing on to receive ...

http://turkfilm.blogspot.com/

Europe's LUX prize goes to When We Leave

Nov 24, 2010

The European Parliament's president Jerzy Buzek presented the award to Aladağ at a special ceremony today (24 Nov). She is the first female director to be shortlisted since the award began in 2007. The award carries a cash prize of ...

http://turkfilm.blogspot.com/

65 countries vie for 2010 Foreign Language Film Oscar®

Oct 16, 2010

Germany, “When We Leave,” Feo Aladag, director; Greece, “Dogtooth,” Yorgos Lanthimos, director; Greenland, “Nuummioq,” Otto Rosing and Torben Bech, directors; Hong Kong, “Echoes of the Rainbow,” Alex Law, director; ...

http://turkfilm.blogspot.com/

TIFF 2011 | Don't Go

Pinky - Don't Go from Pinky on Vimeo.



Don't Go
Turgut Akacik
Country: Turkey
Year: 2010
Runtime:  (3’ 51”)
Ages: 7-11
A pouncing cat pursues its imaginary disco-dancing friend in this lively and original music video.
produced by Anima - Istanbul. Annecy 2010 Animation Film Festival Special Distinction Award and Junior Jury Award for a short film winner. By Anima istanbul


Character Design: Nermin Er
Art Director: Melis Şeylan
Story: Turgut Akaçık
Production: Oya Aytimur
Graphic Design: Melis Şeylan
Animation: Turgut Akaçık
Director of Photography: Turgut Akaçık
Compositing: Koray Güzey, İlhan Poyraz
TD: Soner Ünlü
Modeling: Özgül Gürbüz
Music: "Don't Go" - Yazoo, "Invisible" - Fisher Spooner
Sound Design: Ozan Kurtulus
Editing: Turgut Akaçık
Title Sequence Animation: Ahmet Tabak
anima.gen.tr
Pinky - Don't Go (Teaser)