Winter Sleep

Mr Nuri Bilge Ceylan had made adventurous efforts in his movie "Winter Sleep". Rewardingly, Palme d'Or Awards was passed onto his hands in 2014. A stunning feature of this movie was the eloquence of major characters. Because of this distinct feature, the audiences need feel comfortable to catch up with a large amount of intellectual debates and accusative questionings between the characters, in order to tap into the characters' inner worlds.

During three hours and sixteen minutes, a rich and deep portrait of various emotional sufferings are gradually unfolded. The audiences are exposed to intense conflicts between the rich and the poor, a complacent brother and his critical divorcée sister, an egoistic husband and an unhappy young wife and also a naive philanthropist and a resentful villager. Also, there are explosions and accumulations of negative emotional outbursts such as distrust, prejudice, loneliness, fear, suffocation, delusion, cynicism, hopelessness and hatred.

While viewing these interpersonal tensions and emotional despairs, it seems to me that our characters were all wearing shackles which had stopped them from finding their true inner strength. For Aydin, the shackle was his distrust and emotional rigidity. For Necla, it was her disapproving attitude and reluctance to change. For Nihal, it was her pessimistic view of her future. For Hamdi, it was his deeply-rooted shame and hatred towards the rich. For Hamid's little son Ilysa, it was his inability to fight against social unfairness. For Hamdi's bother Ismail, it was his involuntary submissiveness and unresisting. And perhaps due to these emotional scars, they all felt deprived of freedom and thus pushed each other into corners in order to feel justified.

Mr Nuri Bilge Ceylan opened an abundance of philosophical discussions in this movie. Seemingly he was unwilling to provide effective solution to ease any of these social and interpersonal tensions depicted in the movie. Nevertheless, Mr Ceylan did examine Aydin's self-revelation after he clashed with his sister Necla and his wife Nihal. When Aydin's false ego was badly stricken, the loneliness and pain in Aydin's heart must have been unbearably agonizing. From that moment, the movie started to openly unveil Aydin's vulnerabilities. He contemplated at his parents' graveyard. His messy hair was flying nowhere in the snow, looking terribly sad. When he showed genuine care to the young motorcyclist, that warmth didn't returned back to him. The releasing of a wild horse back to Anatolia steppe could indicate his longing to loosen his own rigidity and forceful mind. While waiting for his run-away train to Istanbul, he frankly demanded the company of his assistance Hidayet. He paid attention to a dead fox lying beside the rails in the snow and even checked birds of prey on the nearby tree. He watched the dying rabbit pitifully during hunting. At the end of the movie, Aydin admitted to himself that he was unable to live through life without Nihal. At this point, when Aydin acknowledged his emotional vulnerabilities, it appeared that he regained his peace and order, and even kicked off his long-term writing project on "the History of Turkish Theatre". Aydin perhaps realized that he no longer needed to be the superior one who was emotionally distant to people and himself, who felt like a king by being a columnist in his imaged kingdom, who loved his own civilized manner to contrast others'clumsiness, who was relying on rigidity to feel strong…

Overall, this is a thought-provoking movie, managed by a master director and performed by impeccable cast. I would love to watch this movie again after a few years, as I wish to comprehend more of its richness and depth when life rewards me with more personal experiences.

Winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or at 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Winter Sleep arrives with high expectations but succeeds amazingly well in living up to its new-found honour for this Turkish drama is simply one of the most engrossing, mesmerizing & satisfying narratives to surface on the silver screen in the past year, and is definitely one of the best films of 2014.

Set in Anatolia, the story of Winter Sleep concerns Aydın; the wealthy owner of a mountaintop hotel who was once an actor but has since fallen into the hibernation mode over the years. The plot covers the chaos his self-involved persona brings to his small kingdom as the animosity of his loved ones & the poor people under his reign begins surfacing once the winter approaches.

Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the film takes a very methodical, patient & firm approach with its narrative which does a stellar job in slowly unraveling the inner details of the various characters inhabiting this story. The entire story is an amalgamation of one conversation after another but it's how each discussion begins & ends plus seamlessly switches from one to another that makes it such an immersive experience.

The locations are wonderfully chosen, set pieces are finely detailed, the hotel itself creates a calm but secluded ambiance which becomes all the more suffocating on the advent of winter. Camera-work is mostly still yet effective plus the landscapes are beautifully photographed, its 196 minutes of runtime never really bothers for the most part, thanks to its breezy storytelling & the score makes its presence felt just when it's required.

Coming to the performances, every single actor here chips in strongly in their given roles & leave nothing to complain about. Haluk Bilginer delivers a magnificent performance as Aydın, and is brilliantly supported by Demet Akbağ & Melisa Sözen who play his sister & wife, respectively. The rest of the cast also shines since each character is deftly scripted & gradually developed which differentiates them from caricatures.

On an overall scale, Winter Sleep is an intensely gripping, masterfully told & exquisitely layered study of a self-righteous character that also takes an interesting look at failing relationships, old age regrets, class divides, and the morals of right & wrong. And despite its challenging runtime, dialogue-driven plot & slow-burn narration, it manages to be a truly immersive & absorbing cinema that's worthy of your time & money. Highly recommended.

Have for a long time absolutely loved foreign language films, with 'Pan's Labyrinth' and 'A Very Long Engagement' making major impressions on me in school (and they are still favourites). Have actually seen very few Turkish films, but watched 'Winter Sleep' because of trusted friends raving over it and also the critical acclaim. With many recently seen highly regarded films being from my experience as great as said, expectations were high. The idea of the film also fascinated me.

'Winter Sleep' did not disappoint at all. Actually thought it one of the best films seen by me in a long time. The film is indeed long at nearly three and a half hours, but that didn't bother me. Having seen plenty of films with long lengths, some even longer, that still transfixed. It is indeed talk heavy, which is not always a good thing to me, depending on how good the talk is and how much is necessary. And it is indeed slow, or should we say deliberately, paced, but in my experience slow paced does not immediately equal bad (some of the best and most influential films ever made are slow).

Everything works. The scenery is absolutely breath taking, suitably bleak in parts but also hauntingly beautiful and atmosphere filled. The photography is quite stunning as well, really appreciated that there weren't any dizzying camera angles, fast cuts or slow motion, it is instead kept still and simple but is absolutely beautiful in that. It really makes the atmosphere speak for itself. The music is only used when necessary, but when it is used it is haunting and suitably melancholic.

The film is superbly scripted, as said it is heavy in talk. But it is truly thought provoking and powerful talk and all of it felt necessary and added a lot to the complexity of the characters. The story never felt dull and it didn't feel over-stretched either, it is not one of those films that tries to do too much narratively and takes its time to build but it really succeeds in making the tough, sensitive subject and themes bleakly uncompromising yet moving, making the intimacy of some of the storytelling really come to life emotionally and giving meat to the characters. The long length for me actually flew by.

Moreover, the lead character is not easy to get behind to begin with, but he does grow the more he understands what is going on around him, what his conflicts are doing to others and the more his motivations are understood. The film is sublimely acted, with Haluk Bilginer giving one of the best and most complex performances of the year that should have gotten more award recognition.

Summing up, absolutely wonderful. 10/10.

A long theatrical play of dialogue and moods, thoughts and reflections, the absence of love or purpose, mixed with unchallenged and unsolved social inequalities, all placed into beautiful shots amid an astonishing natural environment. Very well played, with an almost unbearable iceberg of surpressed emotions and intellectually justified lack of action. Thought-provoking and emotionally touching, even if in a disturbing way.

This movie feels like you're peeking into the lives of these characters, and it can be very awkward.

The story is, basically, a conflict between a landlord and a tenant. The main landlord is kind of an asshole. He's snobbish and condescending, but the tenant isn't the most likeable either.

These characters feel like people. Flawed and conflicted. Their story is more fascinating to watch that it would seem at first.

The film is very long and very slow, but instead of being boring, it's relaxing, despite how unrelaxed the characters may be (they spend a lot of the time arguing). It's also really tense. Tense and relaxing. Oddly nostalgic.

If I were to compare it to a more recent movie, that would be Hu Bo's An Elephant Sitting Still.