Oh God, where do I being with this? This has to be one of the most visually beautiful, stunningly deep, and down right gorgeous films I have ever seen. There is so much here to talk about, so many themes, so many shots that will stay in my mind for a long time after I've seen this. But this poses a conumdrum. For you see, I could tell you everything about this film that captured me, but this is one of those films that you really have to experience and discover for yourself. So, I'm going to give the things that stood out for me personally, and just hope that you go out and watch it, and come up with your own conclusions.
So, the basic plot is a group of police officers, including the Chief of Police for one of the big villages, a Prosecutor and a Doctor who have been brought in from out of Anatolia, and two Suspects, who travel around the countryside of Anatolia looking for a body. But it's not about that, not really. It's about the different characters, and how they strangely bond over this "quest", and how they respond to what happens over the course of the night. But, again, it's not just about that. It's about everything that isn't said, the silence in pauses, the looks between people. It's about what makes people human, what makes them monsters and everything in between. Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has said that he prefers to not use words, because a lot more is said in silences, so the dialogue is minimal and is never really about the main plot. In a nutshell, it's deep. It's fucking deep.
I'm not really going to sell this film if I say there is a lot of standing around, looking at scenery and talking. This is like a murder mystery after the mystery has been solved. But, oh! The scenery is beautiful! Ceylan is a photographer as well as a director, if you pause any moment of the film you could sell the frame as a photo. The third shot of the film is two cars and a police truck driving along the winding Anatolian roads while the sun is setting, and it has to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, in film and otherwise. The lighting is incredible as well. The first half of the film takes place during the night and the only lights that are used are the headlights of the three vehicles and the "moon". Yet, with this minimal lighting it's amazing what you can see. The darkness is almost this mystical protector, and indeed when daylight does come, the characters become actual people rather than the half hidden hunters that they were during the night.
Instead of talking about all the big themes in this film, I'm just going to talk about the one that stood out the most for me. As I said earlier, there is a lot in this film, and you could come up with any number of things that I never picked up on. But for me, there was this overwhelming theme of guilt. A lot of the characters seemed to have this nagging guilt that they just couldn't leave behind and would interfere with the work they were sent to accomplish. There's Kenan (Fırat Tanış), the Suspect, who is haunted by the friend that he killed. The Chief of police, Commissar Naci (Yılmaz Erdoğan) who is never there for his son and beginning to feel the repercussions of that neglect. The Prosecutor (Taner Birsel), who's story I won't spoil because it's one of the greatest (for lack of a better word) twists of the movie. Even the mysterious Doctor Cemal (Muhammet Uzuner) and Chauffer Arap Ali (Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan) have hints of guilt or regret in what little of their back stories is revealed. Again, I already fear I'm saying too much, and I don't want to spoil the film but the guilt of the characters for me is what fills every frame.
And I haven't even got onto the acting! I'm not sure I should reveal anthing more about the characters, I do feel it is better going into any film and not really knowing what it's about. What I will say is that there is a forced sense of formality that doesn't truly disappear over the course of the film. And that there is a really dark wit to the writing at times. I'm serious, there are some laugh out loud moments in here. The acting felt a little wooden at the beginning but that might just've been the different cultures and a different acting style to waht I'm normally used to, and after a while you don't notice it.
I'm not going to pretend that this is a film for everyone. As much as I implore you to watch it, many of you won't and even if you all did, I'm sure there would be many of you that wouldn't like it. This is not a Hollywood movie, this is about as un-Hollywood as you can possibly get. There are lots of silences, and lots of darkness. There isn't any soundtrack, and except for natural noises, there is only one time when there is music. And it is long. Apparently 150 hours of footage was shot, and that was cut down to 157 minutes. The pace of the film is very slow and steady, so by the third act it does start to drag. But I don't care. By the time third act arrived for me, I was so engrossed with this movie that I had to see how it would finish, even though I did feel the drag.
Keeping with the un-Hollywood feel of it all, nothing is fully explained or finished. It is ambiguous, but in a good way. In a way that sticks in your mind for ages after and makes you think what actually happened. A lot of the main "action" happens off screen, making it even more ambiguous and confusing. This could be very annoying for some people who like their endings nice and neat. But I do have to say that the atmosphere is truly exceptional. I felt cold in the cinema, it felt like I was personally part of it and freezing my arse off in the cold Anatolian night.
What more can I say? I love this film. It's one of the best films I've seen this year, if not the best, so far. All I can say now is if I've sparked your interest in any way, please go and see this film on the big screen. It's one of the only film I've seen in years that really seems to understand that film is a visual medium. All I'm doing now is repeating myself. So, I'd better stop before you get bored. Until next time, dear readers. Until next time.
