Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Plot

A group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes.

Release Year: 2011

Rating: 8.2/10 (6,471 voted)

Critic's Score: 76/100

Director:
Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Stars: Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel

Storyline
A group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes.

Writers: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan

Cast:

Muhammet Uzuner
–

Doctor Cemal

Yilmaz Erdogan
–

Commissar Naci

Taner Birsel
–

Prosecutor Nusret

Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan
–

Driver Arab Ali

Firat Tanis
–

Suspect Kenan

Ercan Kesal
–

Mukhtar

Erol Erarslan
–

Murder Victim Yasar

Ugur Aslanoglu
–

Courthouse Driver Tevfik

Murat Kiliç
–

Police Officer Izzet

Safak Karali
–

Courthouse Clerk Abidin

Emre Sen
–

Sergeant Onder

Burhan Yildiz
–

Suspect Ramazan

Nihan Okutucu
–

Yasar's wife Gülnaz

Cansu Demirci
–

Mukhtar's Daughter Cemile

Kubilay Tunçer
–

Autopsy Technician Sakir

Details

Official Website:
Official site |

Release Date: 23 September 2011

Filming Locations: Central Anatolia, Turkey

Opening Weekend: $10,652
(USA)
(8 January 2012)
(1 Screen)

Gross: $63,225
(USA)
(19 February 2012)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

150 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

Turkey's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012.

User Review

A long night in the Turkish countryside

Rating: 10/10


This film won the Grand Prix in Cannes, and it was deserved. A team
goes into the countryside to find the body of a murder victim. The team
includes the two men accused of the murder,one of whom has confessed
and says he wills show them where they buried the body, the police
chief, prosecutor, doctor, diggers, and guards. As the night drags on
into the next day and the body is not found, the men grow more and more
tired. Much of the film is beautifully shot in the dark or semi-dark,
lit only by the headlights of the cars or a lamp in the village where
they stop to rest. The filming is slow, showing the beautiful
countryside and vignettes that wonderfully shed light on the different
characters. What seems to be a simple task grows more and more complex;
everything in the movie turns out to be more complicated than it first
seems. Everyone seems to be guilty of something, so the film becomes a
question not only of will the body be found, but who is guilty of what?

One could say that the film is too slow, but just as the team grows
more and more tired, so arewe as the viewers, participating in the
fatigue of the team, drawn into the feelings of the characters. Women
and children are present only as lovely cameos in the film, but are
behind almost everything. The actors are all superb, and it was amazing
to me that Ceylan could show such depth and breadth of character and
emotion and drama with only a few lines of dialog and amazing closeups
of the faces.