Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
[I]n a search that will last all night long, two men are being driven around a remote rural area in two police cars and an army jeep. The squinting, silent Kenan has confessed to murdering Yasar and burying him, apparently with the help of the other man. Now the police chief Naci has called prosecutor Nusret all the way from Ankara to witness the discovery of the corpse. Everything must be done properly, dictated in bureaucratic lingo and drafted into a report.
(...) Ceylan’s background in still photography informs every shot, which rings with hidden feeling and a sense of intimacy. Gokhan Tiryaki’s cinematography emphasizes the stark, eerie beauty of the Anatolian landscape (...).
Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter
Ceylan is never in a rush, revealing the information in an oblique fashion which requires the viewer not only to not blink, but also to interpret everything he is told and put it in the right context. Patience is amply repaid by the end, when all those details come together, and one realises there is much they have learned in the course of the film about all these predictable, unspectacular individuals who end up by being both touching and affecting.
Dan Fainaru, Screen International
Original title: Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da
Duration: 157 min
Dialogue: Turkey
Subtitles: English
Age limit: K15
