Review of Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) by Matt H — 16 Oct 2015

This is the third film I've seen from the Turkish master who has a way of getting inside his characters' heads, so that you know what they must be thinking even though they don't voice their thoughts.

(The others were Distant and Winter Sleep). This time, in the context of a perfunctory police investigation (finding the corpse after the killers have confessed to where it is), we are privileged to an on-again, off-again conversation between The Prosecutor and The Doctor that rather accidentally leads one to discover an unpleasant and personal truth.

This bit (which might be the "point" of the otherwise discursive script) has been adapted from Chekhov (apparently) but Ceylan takes it one step further (into the autopsy room). Despite this glorious nugget buried at the end (or in addition to it), the film is still a beautifully shot panorama (in night colors) of the Turkish foothills with what must be a conscious nod to Kiarostami (the Wind Will Carry Us, Close-Up, others), who has a similar way of inserting thoughts in the viewer, as if by prestidigitation.

Somehow the way the film is shot (those slow zooms?) has the ability to concentrate your attention on its details (relevant or not) and this can carry viewers through the epic length.