ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Turkey 157 min Fiction

Synopsis

An epic and rigorous tale of a night and day in a murder investigation, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a beautifully photographed crime drama about police and prosecutors locating a buried body through one long night in the Anatolian steppes. In the short prologue three men are drinking and talking. Then a convoy of cars is travelling around the countryside at night as one of the men seen earlier is trying to remember where a body was buried. After several false leads and a rest in a remote village, the body is finally discovered early the next morning. In the course of the long investigation the characters and hidden thoughts of the main protagonists are gradually themselves exhumed.

Filmmaker

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul in 1959. His two first features, The Small Town and The Clouds of May were shown in Berlin, but it was only with Distant in 2003 that he came to international attention, winning the Cannes Grand Prix with the 2 actors sharing the Best Actor Prize. Each of his subsequent features premiered in the Cannes competition.

Filmography: Three Monkeys (2008), Climates (2006), Distant (2002), The Clouds of May (1999), The Small Town (1997)

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Film information

Original Title: Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Script: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan y Ercan Kesal
Contact: Zeynofilm
With: Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Firat Tanis
Country: Turkey
Year: 2011
Format: 35 mm
Length: 157 min
Language: Turkish
Subtitles: Spanish/English
Edition: 2012