Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Co-winner of last year’s Palm d’Or (that’s the Grand Prize) at the Cannes Film Festival, this film marks (sort of) the American breakthrough of Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. As the film begins, a police chief, a prosecutor, a doctor, two suspects and a few hangers on prowl the Anatolian hills by the light of the moon in search of a corpse. One of the suspects has confessed, but he was drunk when he committed the murder, and can’t remember where he buried the body. This is a long, slow, and subtle film—with no Angelina Jolie or George Cloony—but its well worth the journey, steeped as it is in beauty and loss.—PB

“A metaphysical road movie about life, death and the limits of knowledge, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia has arrived just in time to cure the adult filmgoer blues… Nuri Bilge Ceylan in recent years has emerged as one of the consistently most exciting directors on the international scene…[As the film progresses, it] evolves into a plangent, visually stunning meditation on what it is to be human.”—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“Nuri Bilge Ceylan, one of Turkey’s best directors, has a deep understanding of human nature. He loves his characters and empathizes with them.”—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

“A subtle, gorgeous and mysterious allegory that may be Ceylan’s masterwork to date.”—Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

“157-minute police procedural at once sensuous and cerebral, profane and metaphysical, ‘empty’ and abundant, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is closer to the Antonioni of L’Avventura, and it elevates the 52-year-old director to a new level of achievement.”—J. Hoberman, Village Voice