Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da

Peering through the monotony of everyday lives to pose larger questions about purpose & existence, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a quiet, somber & reflective mood piece that finds beauty in the mundane and expertly employs its police procedural structure as a narrative framework to unearth deeper existential insights.

Co-written & directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the plot covers a night & day in the lives of people involved in a murder investigation but doesn't adhere to any of its genre's conventions. Ceylan's composed & controlled direction keeps a firm check on every single aspect, and provides an expansive canvas for its characters to develop.

From the distant shots of the vast Anatolian steppes to detailed close-ups of its characters, Cinematography definitely stands out, whether it's the images filmed during nighttime or captured in daylight. Editing is methodical throughout, deliberately unfolding the plot at a silent & glacial pace. And sincere performances from its entire cast makes sure that the interest is never lost.

Overall, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is an ingeniously crafted & patiently narrated drama that presents the Turkish filmmaker in total control of his craft and, despite its intimidating 157 mins runtime, manages to be an utterly absorbing & engrossing experience. Its slow & undramatic approach can be too frustrating for some but for the rest, it is as rewarding a film such as this can get. One of the best films of the decade.

Ceylan's films always get criticized for being too slow, and yes, they are slower, sometimes much slower, than what the flickering-advertisement generation is used to today. In Turkey, he is heavily criticized for being "too artsy," inaccessible, and boring. I, on the other hand, marvel at how non-Turkish audiences can actually watch and like his films; it speaks volumes for his brilliant talent in making something so foreign and different a universal piece for everyone to appreciate. The untranslatable colloquial language, the lives of people in remote parts of Turkey with petty worries, a murder investigation that happen in snail pace, the local politics of small, mud-brick villages all become accessible. Combined with his impeccable sense of cinematography and some stellar performances, especially from Yilmaz Erdogan, whom we are more used to seeing in comedic roles, the film shines.

Why a 7/10, then? Well, I have seen all of Ceylan's films. They all execute the story arc well. They do not have Hollywood endings where everything is neatly resolved, of course, but they usually have some progress and movement through the arc. Somehow, this film lacked that. I felt like the main story arc was not fulfilled. I cannot really explain it; perhaps it was that too many things were left untold, or some "hints" were too vague and just when you thought they will lead somewhere, they didn't? Nevertheless, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is another cinematic gem from the Turkish master. Highly recommended for those who do not have to have action packed scenes and formula-bound stories to enjoy a film.

This is a terrific film. The cinematography is brilliant, fabulous. The acting is excellent. The dialogue is very natural, sometimes very funny (as in the subtitle quote in the heading of this review) sometimes philosophical, but always drawing us into the story and the lives of the characters.

There is a mystery within a mystery., one I understood in the end, the other I am not so sure about - but being left in doubt did not leave me disappointed but rather it left me liking the film even more.

This is an incredibly rich viewing experience even though it depicts relatively impoverished living standards.

It can hardly be called action packed but it is extremely engaging because of how beautifully it is filmed and how well it is written.

Anatolia, simply the rest of Turkey other than Istanbul. It is a place where the hospitality is served as the only gift with respect and honor. The fascinating thing is to see such sort of story which takes place in this land of world where hundreds of nations have existed and vanished throughout the history, by a magnificent director, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. I can understand people who have harsh criticism about these kind of arts so called as ''film-noir''. It may seem too slow or simply lack of action or someone can even question how other people can enjoy by watching so called cliché ' a man looking beyond the horizons all along the movie'. The point is no body has to like this sort of art. For instance it is like reading a book. Consider some pages of a book when there is no action but the author speaks instead of the hero of the book. So by watching ' a man looking beyond the horizons' makes me question what he could think or makes me put myself in the middle of the situation. And I really feel like I am that guy in the movie. But I really really and really feel like I am that guy, when the movie is so perfectly directed and so perfectly portrayed.

We can call this movie as a bridge or as a milestone in Ceylan's career. It is as simple as that, there is a very obvious change in Ceylan's directing and writing after seeing that movie. Having seen that, we can make this comparison like Before or After Once upon a Time in Anatolia. It is not 'three monkeys' or 'the climates' or 'the distant', it is obviously another one that carries Nuri Bilge Ceylan's way of directing to the next level.

Another must see...

I watched "Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da" just a couple of hours ago and wanted to write a review immediately before the satisfaction it provides fades away. In one word, it's a marvellous film which should not be missed!

The scenery and the images are fantastic. The journey motif makes it the lives that cross one another familiar. And the acting! It totally blew my mind! It seems as if the director is really relating the story of a group of people without ever making his presence felt. It does not feel like you are watching a film at all but from the very first moment you are taken in by the film.

I want to congratulate Nuri Bilge Ceylan and all those contributors in this manner. This was his first film I've ever watched and I'll watch the rest at once without any delay. I already feel like I've lost a lot of my precious time...

Thanks a lot for this cinematographic marvel, people like you make us realise that cinema is in truth an art; one which keeps mesmerising us all...