Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
| Once Upon a Time in Anatolia | |
|---|---|
Original theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Nuri Bilge Ceylan |
| Produced by | Zeynep Özbatur Atakan |
| Written by | Nuri Bilge Ceylan Ercan Kesal Ebru Ceylan |
| Starring |
Muhammet Uzuner Yılmaz Erdoğan Taner Birsel |
| Cinematography | Gökhan Tiryaki |
| Edited by | Bora Gökşingöl Nuri Bilge Ceylan |
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Production
company |
Zeyno Film
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| Distributed by | The Cinema Guild |
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Release date
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Running time
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157 minutes |
| Country | Turkey Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Language | Turkish |
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Turkish: Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da) is a 2011 Turkish drama film, co-written and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan based on the true experience of one of the film's writers, telling the story of a group of men who search for a dead body on the Anatolian steppe. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on September 23, 2011, premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival where it was a co-winner of the Grand Prix.
Through the night, three cars carry a small group of men – police officers, a doctor, a prosecutor, grave diggers, gendarmerie forces, and two brothers, homicide suspects – around in the rural surroundings of the Anatolian town Keskin, in search of a buried body. Kenan, one of the suspects, leads them from one water fountain to another; at the time of the crime he was drunk and he cannot recall where he and his mentally challenged brother buried the body. The darkness and visual indistinctness of the landscape do not help; each spot looks the same as the others.
Meanwhile, the men discuss a variety of topics, such as yoghurt, lamb chops, urination, family, spouses, ex-wives, death, suicide, hierarchy, bureaucracy, ethics, and their jobs. Philosophy is also discussed, with one apparently central and particular idea/theme mentioned a couple of times throughout the film—the idea that children invariably pay for their parents' mistakes.
After many stops the prosecutor begins to tell the doctor about a particularly mysterious death where a woman correctly predicted to her husband the exact date of her own death, which was a short time after she had given birth to a child. The story is interrupted when the prosecutor sees some of his men lashing out at Kenan after discovering that once again they are in the wrong spot. As the group discusses what to do next, Kenan asks the doctor for a cigarette which he tries to give him. Commisar Naci stops him however and tells Kenan that he can have a cigarette when he earns it.
The group stops at a nearby village to eat at the home of the town mayor. The mayor pleads with the prosecutor to speak to the authorities of his town to help provide funds to build a morgue where bodies can be prepared. When some of the men suggest that he simply bury the bodies quickly the man informs them that emigration means that only old people are left in the town and when their children learn of their deaths they beg him not to bury the bodies immediately so that they may come back and see their parents one last time.
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