Filmmaker in Focus: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Screening Schedule October

Filmmaker in Focus: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Screening Schedule
October 29—November 5, 2014
Wednesday, October 29
7:00
Kis uykusu (Winter Sleep). 2014. Turkey. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Erbru
Ceylan. With Haluk Bilginer, Demet Akbag, Malisa Sözen. Winner of the Palme d’Or
of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Ceylan’s most recent film blends elements of
Ibsen, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov into a three-part symphony in dialogue. Aydin
(Bilginer) imagines himself the local potentate in the district of Anatolia that surrounds
his mountaintop hotel. A former actor who now bloviates in the local newspaper,
Aydin’s supreme self-confidence blinds him to the resentment of those he takes to be
his natural subjects—not just the villagers, but his wife and sister, who live with him in
his mountain redoubt. Focusing on the seemingly unbridgeable divisions between
classes and generations, Ceylan develops his themes of guilt, responsibility, faith, and
spirituality into a family drama with deep implications. 196 min.
U.S. Premiere. Introduced by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
Thursday, October 30
4:00
Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia). 2011. Turkey/Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Erbru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal. With
Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel. Ceylan captures the dark night of
the soul, here encapsulated as a search through the countryside surrounding a small
Anatolian village for a missing body. The killer has confessed, but was too drunk to
remember where the murder took place; as the quest continues through the night, the
local doctor and coroner (Uzuner), the police commissioner (Erdogan), and the lead
prosecutor (Birsel) find their conversation circling back to a single significant topic: the
notion that the sins of the parents are paid for by their children. Ceylan’s expressive
use of landscape here achieves new heights, as he meticulously documents the
haunting atmosphere that envelops the isolated town and its tortured inhabitants. 157
min.
Introduced by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
7:30
Iklimler (Climates). 2006. Turkey/France. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. With
Mehmet Eryilmaz. A master of widescreen composition, Ceylan smoothly conjugates
vast, craggy landscapes and all-too-intimate domestic interiors in this study of a toxic
but stubbornly persistent relationship. Ceylan and his wife, Ebru Ceylan, offer
unsparing portrayals of the central couple, a desiccated, massively self-involved
Istanbul academic and his possessively romantic partner, an art director for a turgid
television series. Ceylan employs extended silences and achingly empty spaces to
evoke the contradictory feelings that bind the pair in a permanent dance of rupture
and reunion. 101 min.
Introduced by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Mehmet Eryilmaz.
Friday, October 31
4:00
Üç maymun (Three Monkeys). 2008. Turkey/France/Italy. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge
Ceylan, Erbru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal. With Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat
Sungar. The usually unruffled surface of Ceylan’s films is here disturbed by some
spectacularly melodramatic plot elements borrowed from the Turkish popular cinema.
A conniving politician (co-screenwriter Kesal) pays his salt-of-the-earth driver (Bingol)
to take the rap for a hit-and-run accident, then takes advantage of the chauffeur’s
absence to conduct an affair with his wife (Aslan). Brooding on the sidelines is the
couple’s unemployed, alienated teenage son (Sungar). 109 min.
7:30
Uzak (Distant). 2002. Turkey. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Cemil Kavukçu. With
Muzaffer Ozdemir, Mehmet Emin Toprak. Ceylan’s cinema of loneliness achieved
international recognition with this, his third feature, which won the Grand Jury Prize
and an acting award for its two leading performers at the Cannes Film Festival.
Mahmut (Ozdemir) is a cosmopolitan photographer who lives in a permanent funk in
fashionable Istanbul; when an awkward country cousin, Yusuf (Toprak), turns up on
his doorstep, seeking a place to crash while he conducts a futile search for
employment, Mahmut is both grateful for the companionship and resentful of the
intrusion. The men may share the space of Ceylan’s meticulously composed frames,
but their lives move inexorably in different directions, toward different solitudes. 110
min.
Saturday, November 1
4:00
Kasaba (The Small Town). 1997. Turkey. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Emin
Ceylan. With Chiat Bütün, Emin Ceylan, Fatma Ceylan, Havva Saglam. Drawn from a
story by Ceylan’s sister, Emine, and based on events from the director’s childhood,
Kasaba captures four seasons in a Turkish village. Shot by Ceylan in a soft light, the
film drifts through a series of sketches amplified by lyrical touches, climaxing in an
extended sequence that finds three generations (the grandparents are played by
Ceylan’s own mother and father) gathered around a fire on a summer night, eating
roast corn and exchanging observations on life and change. Ceylan’s feature debut,
Kasaba reveals his debt to Anton Chekhov in its rueful, sympathetic portrait of
provincial life. 82 min.
Koza (Cocoon). 1995. Turkey. Ceylan’s ambitious first short film, also featuring his
parents. 20 min.
7:30
Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia). 2011. Turkey/Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal. With
Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel. Ceylan captures the dark night of
the soul, here encapsulated as a search through the countryside surrounding a small
Anatolian village for a missing body. The killer has confessed, but was too drunk to
remember where the murder took place; as the quest continues through the night, the
local doctor and coroner (Uzuner), the police commissioner (Erdogan), and the lead
prosecutor (Birsel) find their conversation circling back to a single significant topic: the
notion that the sins of the parents are paid for by their children. Ceylan’s expressive
use of landscape here achieves new heights, as he meticulously documents the
haunting atmosphere that envelops the isolated town and its tortured inhabitants. 157
min.
Sunday, November 2
2:00
Üç maymun (Three Monkeys). 2008. Turkey/France/Italy. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge
Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal. With Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat
Sungar. The usually unruffled surface of Ceylan’s films is here disturbed by some
spectacularly melodramatic plot elements borrowed from the Turkish popular cinema.
A conniving politician (co-screenwriter Kesal) pays his salt-of-the-earth driver (Bingol)
to take the rap for a hit-and-run accident, then takes advantage of the chauffeur’s
absence to conduct an affair with his wife (Aslan). Brooding on the sidelines is the
couple’s unemployed, alienated teenage son (Sungar). 109 min.
4:30
Mayis sikintisi (Clouds of May). 1999. Turkey. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
With Emin Ceylan, Mazaffer Özdemir, Fatma Ceylan, Sadik Incesu. Ceylan’s second
film—in some ways a “making of” his first—tells the story of a filmmaker (Mazaffer
Özdemir) who returns to the village of his childhood to scout locations for a new
project. But a new element emerges with the figure of Sadik (Sadik Incesu), an
aimless young man who sees the filmmaker as his ticket to escape the provinces for
the bright lights of Istanbul. Immersed in the sounds and textures of its rural
environment and filmed with an unforced attentiveness, Clouds of May establishes the
tension between documentary and drama that drives much of Ceylan’s later work. 130
min.
Tuesday, November 4
4:00
Mayis sikintisi (Clouds of May). 1999. Turkey. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
With Emin Ceylan, Mazaffer Özdemir, Fatma Ceylan, Sadik Incesu. Ceylan’s second
film—in some ways a “making of” his first—tells the story of a filmmaker (Mazaffer
Özdemir) who returns to the village of his childhood to scout locations for a new
project. But a new element emerges with the figure of Sadik (Sadik Incesu), an
aimless young man who sees the filmmaker as his ticket to escape the provinces for
the bright lights of Istanbul. Immersed in the sounds and textures of its rural
environment and filmed with an unforced attentiveness, Clouds of May establishes the
tension between documentary and drama that drives much of Ceylan’s later work. 130
min.
7:30
Uzak (Distant). 2002. Turkey. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Cemil Kavukçu. With
Muzaffer Ozdemir, Mehmet Emin Toprak. Ceylan’s cinema of loneliness achieved
international recognition with this, his third feature, which won the Grand Jury Prize
and an acting award for its two leading performers at the Cannes Film Festival.
Mahmut (Ozdemir) is a cosmopolitan photographer who lives in a permanent funk in
fashionable Istanbul; when an awkward country cousin, Yusuf (Toprak), turns up on
his doorstep, seeking a place to crash while he conducts a futile search for
employment, Mahmut is both grateful for the companionship and resentful of the
intrusion. The men may share the space of Ceylan’s meticulously composed frames,
but their lives move inexorably in different directions, toward different solitudes. 110
min.
Wednesday, November 5
4:00
Iklimler (Climates). 2006. Turkey/France. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. With
Mehmet Eryilmaz. A master of widescreen composition, Ceylan smoothly conjugates
vast, craggy landscapes and all-too-intimate domestic interiors in this study of a toxic
but stubbornly persistent relationship. Ceylan and his wife, Ebru Ceylan, offer
unsparing portrayals of the central couple, a desiccated, massively self-involved
Istanbul academic and his possessively romantic partner, an art director for a turgid
television series. Ceylan employs extended silences and achingly empty spaces to
evoke the contradictory feelings that bind the pair in a permanent dance of rupture
and reunion. 101 min.
7:30
Kasaba (The Small Town). 1997. Turkey. Screenplay by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Emin
Ceylan. With Chiat Bütün, Emin Ceylan, Fatma Ceylan, Havva Saglam. Drawn from a
story by Ceylan’s sister, Emine, and based on events from the director’s childhood,
Kasaba captures four seasons in a Turkish village. Shot by Ceylan in a soft light, the
film drifts through a series of sketches amplified by lyrical touches, climaxing in an
extended sequence that finds three generations (the grandparents are played by
Ceylan’s own mother and father) gathered around a fire on a summer night, eating
roast corn and exchanging observations on life and change. Ceylan’s feature debut,
Kasaba reveals his debt to Anton Chekhov in its rueful, sympathetic portrait of
provincial life. 82 min.
Koza (Cocoon). 1995. Turkey. Ceylan’s ambitious first short film, also featuring his
parents. 20 min.

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