Noah Land

You know the story, the atmosphere, the characters. From Nuri Ceylan filmography but , in same measure, because for a viewer from Balkans, all is obvious familiar. It is a beautiful film. Not surprising but correct in high measure for each detail. A father near his death, his son, return to a village, a disputed tree. And a last scene as support for remember similar many others. Short, just beautiful.

Shots were flawless. The movie looks beautiful from start to finish. Acting was of course great as expected from Haluk Bilginer and Ali Atay. The story wasnt shocking but it also wasn't the focus of the movie. What makes this movie so great is the cinematography and watching these characters interact. In that sense this movie is very similar to Nuri Bilge Ceylan's works. But since this is a debut film i dont think this is an issue. I believe the director will create his own style in time.

I watched the movie in a film fistival where the director and his brothers attended the screaning. He said it was the first movie he directed and I couldn't doubt that while watching the movie. The shoots' the baground, the music, and dialogs, all combained perfectlly for a flowless movie. Films like this makes me wonder why directors with more experince and money give us bad movies while we get such a great movie from a "newbie".

Good work, perfect shots, acting and script. I think the film could has been longer, some scenes needed more screen time and explanations.

Cenk Erturk's debut film is very interesting--only if you are not familiar with the works of Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Erturk recaptures every element of a Ceylan and his wife Ebru Ceylan written script for their recent films. Erturk's "Noah Land" reeks of the structure of Ceylan's "The Wild Pear Tree" (2018) a film like "Noah Land" on how a grown-up man get's to finally reconcile with his father's quirky ideas and actions. Erturk in "Noah Land" even goes to the extent of lassoing the Ceylan thespian of "Winter'Sleep" (2014)--the amazing Haluk Bilginer to play the father figure once again as Ceylan did in his film. Even the Noah tree concept and the small time politics of Turkey hark back to Ceylan's "Once upon a time in Anatolia" (2011).

This is not to rate "Noah Land" as a poor film--it is indeed as good and laudable as a Ceylan film in style and content but unfortunately not unique in any respect if you are familiar with Ceylan's works.