Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
FIRST RUN PREMIERE ENGAGEMENT Celebrated Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s masterful police procedural, shot on the Anatolian steppes, depicts a group of law officials riding around the countryside searching for a murder site. Unfortunately for the traveling party, however, the accused can’t remember the exact location. As the caravan stops and starts, conversations reveal other mysteries and several other characters besides the arrested man unburden themselves to others. Though the film references classic westerns and rivals their visual splendors, Anatolia is more deeply concerned with the human condition whether revealed in the group’s reactions to a beautiful woman from the country or a young doctor’s autopsy of the murdered man.
Bir zamanlar Anadolu’da, Turkey/Bosnia and Herzogovina 2011, 157 min. Written by Ercan Kesal, Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Photographed by Gokhan Tiryaki. With Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel. Cinema Guild. In Turkish with subtitles.
Tickets $9 for SFFS members, $11 general, $10 senior/student/disabled. Box office open January 17 online at sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema.
#3 in list of Film Comment’s Unreleased Films of 2011.
[Ceylan’s film] “takes the unassuming form of a police investigation that, as miles and words mount, evolves into a plangent, visually stunning meditation on what it is to be human.” –Manohla Dargis, NY Times
“…my own (Cannes) best-of-fest list; the first is the one I’d most like to see win the Palme d’Or: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.”—Geoff Andrews, Sight and Sound. “…an epic and rigorous sideways portrait of a night and day in a murder investigation… that demands we keep our eyes and ears open… the only masterpiece in the Cannes competition (and) should have won (the Palme d’Or)”
—Dave Calhoun, Time Out (London).
I would have chosen (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) as the best film (at Cannes). By the end of the film, you have a portrait of the Anatolia region in Turkey where you can’t ever tell what’s really true.—John Powers, National Public Radio.
"A slow-burn study of investigatory obsession and police bureaucracy, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s mesmerizing 'Once Upon a Time in Anatolia' plays like 'Zodiac' meets 'Police, Adjective.' That’s a tough combination to pull off: Neither David Fincher’s epic tale of the infamous decade-spanning serial killer hunt nor Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu’s minimalist cop drama come with easy answers. But Ceylan has made a similarly analytical brain teaser, rendered in patient and sharply philosophical terms." –Eric Kohn, indieWIRE
"Ceylan is a sly and daring screen artist of the highest order and should draw wild praise with this new film for challenging both himself and us, the audience, with this lengthy, rigorous and masterly portrait of a night and day in the life of a murder investigation on his country’s Anatolian steppes." –Time Out London
[Ceylan’s film] “takes the unassuming form of a police investigation that, as miles and words mount, evolves into a plangent, visually stunning meditation on what it is to be human.” –Manohla Dargis, NY Times
“…my own (Cannes) best-of-fest list; the first is the one I’d most like to see win the Palme d’Or: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.”—Geoff Andrews, Sight and Sound. “…an epic and rigorous sideways portrait of a night and day in a murder investigation… that demands we keep our eyes and ears open… the only masterpiece in the Cannes competition (and) should have won (the Palme d’Or)”
—Dave Calhoun, Time Out (London).
I would have chosen (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) as the best film (at Cannes). By the end of the film, you have a portrait of the Anatolia region in Turkey where you can’t ever tell what’s really true.—John Powers, National Public Radio.
"A slow-burn study of investigatory obsession and police bureaucracy, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s mesmerizing 'Once Upon a Time in Anatolia' plays like 'Zodiac' meets 'Police, Adjective.' That’s a tough combination to pull off: Neither David Fincher’s epic tale of the infamous decade-spanning serial killer hunt nor Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu’s minimalist cop drama come with easy answers. But Ceylan has made a similarly analytical brain teaser, rendered in patient and sharply philosophical terms." –Eric Kohn, indieWIRE
"Ceylan is a sly and daring screen artist of the highest order and should draw wild praise with this new film for challenging both himself and us, the audience, with this lengthy, rigorous and masterly portrait of a night and day in the life of a murder investigation on his country’s Anatolian steppes." –Time Out London
Bir zamanlar Anadolu’da, Turkey/Bosnia and Herzogovina 2011, 157 min. Written by Ercan Kesal, Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Photographed by Gokhan Tiryaki. With Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel. Cinema Guild. In Turkish with subtitles.
Tickets $9 for SFFS members, $11 general, $10 senior/student/disabled. Box office open January 17 online at sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema.
February 10–16
Showtimes 2:00, 5:30, 8:30
SF Film Society Cinema
1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan)
Showtimes 2:00, 5:30, 8:30
SF Film Society Cinema
1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan)