once upon a time in

anatoliaCinémoi takes a look at one the most mysterious and enthralling films sofar this year...

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s expansive drama amongst the pastoral landscape of rural Turkeymay not sound, on the face of it, like a film that has that much to shout about.But like most meditative films that choose to take their time, long takes of seeminglyinert conversations can be as profound and exhilirating an experience than any sort of hyper-kineticism. And boy does Once Upon a Time In Anatolia take its time.Like some of its Once Upon a Time predecessors - we are talking mostly about Leone’s classic In the West and In America as opposed to Robert Rodriguez’s more hard-boiledIn Mexico - Anatolia is a film painted on a vast cinematic canvas. Initially set around the events of a night time police search - though what exactly they are searching for is, for the moment, left unexplained - as the night gradually draws on the audience is pulled into talesof personal woe and seemingly incongruous conversation. On the surface this may seem quite banal, but Ceylan crafts endless mysteries and intrigue into the banality of thisongoing investigation. There is something metaphysical being searched for here amongstthe barren Anatolian landscape, as each character struggles to find meaning or peacewithin themselves. Answers only begin to surface when Ceylan decides to move out of the dark and into the light.Shot in almost two parts, half at night and half in the day, cinematographer Gökhan Tiryakiexhibits an extraordinary eye for textures and tones, providing extraordinary close-ups offaces and expressions that could mean a thousand different things. Equally, the surroundings are just as encapsulating, evoking Terrence Malick’s picture painting Days of Heaven and Robert Elswit’s breathtaking photography on There Will Be Blood. And although Anatolia has at times a sense of calm, there is also a brooding and terrifying atmosphere that lies beneath. Even in the light of day, the evil inside some of usis too disturbing and incomprehensible to want to think about.

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jack jones

Like Andrew Dominik’s existential masterpiece The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford - another impeccably shot film by stalwart DP Roger Deakins - has something of a footprinton Anatolia. Apart from the western inspired title, Anatolia shares the same turmoils and struggles asBrad Pitt’s title character. Just as Dominik’s Jesse James is haunted by the reality of the crimes he has committed, the mute suspect in Anatolia bears a similar shame and dishonour for the crime he is responsible for. But is he covering for someone? Is he really ashamed and remorseful?Ceylan is not forthcoming with answers, favouring a feeling of slow-burn and protraction. Anatoliais even in fits a frustrating experience, but it is not without purpose or aim. Ceylan merely opensthe audience to the frustrations that some of the characters feel. Most have personal issuesof there own that they are preoccupied on resolving, only the case stands in their way. Formost of the film Dotor Cemal (Muhammet Uzuner) acts as a wise and trusted ear to each andeveryone’s problems. Like most ancient fables, he is the small town’s wise and educated man thatothers come to for answers. In one of the film’s most moving relationships, the doctor helps theinvestigation’s prosecutor come to realise a sad truth that deep down he himself knows.Though patience is indeed required, the rewards in Anatolia are many. And despite all of the profound under-tones, the film is has a wickedly dark sense of humour as the quite farcical police investigation ensues. It is clear that the police in this part of the world are very low-tech, but the film avoids, however, the mocking sentiment of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat in favour of something more endearing in spirit.Magnetic, compelling and hypnotic, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a flim that breaks the mould of the police procedural in some the finest and most intriguing ways imaginable, and is as close as they come to being a masterpiece.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is in cinemas 16 March courtesy of New Wave Films