Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

★★★★

(2011)

Nuri Ceylan’s wonderful examination of the smaller aspects of life overtaking the drama of it all is a slow paced, dark and fascinating journey. At 158 minutes and falling under the banner of the causal film goer as “a movie where nothing happens” Once Upon a Time in Anatolia seems not to care in the slightest and, frankly, it’s all the better for it. Beautifully acted and quietly affecting, it is reminiscent of Tarkovsky or even Bela Tarr in its structure and speed as we follow a dozen men and criminals through the dark Turkish moors in search of a dead body.

As they move from spot to spot with the two perpetrators of the crime, unsure of the actual spot they buried their victim, we are subject to conversations of death, food and life by the case’s Prosecutor, Nusret (Tanner Birsel) the officer in charge, Naci (Yilmaz Erdogan) and the quiet doctor, Cemal (Muhammet Uzuner). A story from Nusret about a woman who predicted her own death infects Cemal and as the night turns into morning the true nature and purpose of Ceylan’s film closes wonderfully.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia with its Leone influenced title certainly has roots in western mythology and the psychology of murderers and the men attempting to bring them to justice but the softness of Ceylan’s hand gives the film a feeling of mystery greater than the one inhabiting the plot. Recalling the work of Andrei Zvyagintsev’s The Banishment in its questioning of the mundane life of the mission the film’s revolutions are of a tiny quantity but of a staggering quality. Its meticulously shot portraying a beautiful charter in the Anatolian landscape even in the blackest of night where most of the film takes place. The green and orange hues which live in every frame are gorgeous to look at and the murky fire light of a power cut is one of the films quietly spectacularly shot pieces.

Though definately not for everyone there maybe something wonderful in Once Upon a Time in Anatolia for you; Watching an apple tumble down a hill into a stream to join some other rotten ones may make you pine for Tarkovsky’s finest moments and a steak of lightning bouncing off a stone face in the mountain side might remind you gently of Argento but it can’t be denied that this film is a fresh look at what drives people to find the horrible truth in the world and in themselves.