Review of Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) by Edgar C — 28 Dec 2013

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:14.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9.

These two Bible quotations, in my humble opinion, encapsulate the entire statement of Ceylan's new thought-provoking and mysterious crime story, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Leaving the crime plot elements aside, which are just the engine of the story, the answers are left intentionally unclear, but the messages are not.

First, appearances are deceiving, and the heart is an intrinsically evil mystery, even to ourselves. Our scope of things is incredibly limited, and in our attempts to rationalize events around us, past or present, we automatically leave emotions out of the equation, and emotions are the ones that normally function as puzzle solvers.

Second, the youth of future generations are the ones that pay for the broken dishes of their parents. They have to pay the repercussions of evil deeds that they do not understand, because the troubles of adults invade their world, and that goes against natural order. Ceylan seems to suggest this with Cemile, a young woman whose beautiful and angelical appearance surrounded by light suddenly offers everything that is indispensable for the human body and soul: water, light and repentance. We are located inside this dark room, devoid of electricity and full of grown-up male characters of questionable morality and of unstable temper, until this slowly-walking angel appears with eyes of naïveté offering them what everybody seeks. All have the same defenseless reaction. Even if we are different, the human heart is the same. Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? Mark 4:21.

With a visual style that now resembles Kiarostami's free-flowing landscape frames more rather than Ceylan's previous minimalist and realism-oriented scope, here comes another Cannes triumph with enough imagery to leave the heart enchanted, the soul anxious and the mind putting pieces together hopelessly.

97/100.