Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

AroView: Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan directs this masterful long-haul road movie about a convoy of policemen searching for a body on the spectacular Anatolian steppes.

The winding, Chekhovian narrative, which seems to go nowhere while surreptitiously revealing the existential crises of its morose but compelling characters, is classic art cinema fare, and makes no apologies for its slow rhythms and anti-dramatic tendencies. Rich in atmosphere, visual complexity, and spine-tingling disquiet, this is Ceylan’s best film since the melancholic masterpiece, UZAK.

“A subtle, gorgeous and mysterious allegory that may be Ceylan’s masterwork to date.” ~SALON