Ahlat Ağacı by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Every time I intend to see a Nuri Bilge Ceylan movie, I hesitate. I don’t actually like Tarkovsky style movies as I never claimed to be a cinephile. But after watching any of his movies, I do not feel any regrets. The films are demanding, long and intense but quite grasping. I watched his latest one two nights ago, I still remember scenes from it.

Just some notes with claims of expertise:

• Ceylan’s Anatolia tour continues. This time he chose somewhere in western Aegea. Çanakkale and Çan.
• He turned some comedy actors into drama actors.
• The main apartment scenes. You see most of the stuff from the 80’s. My parents had the same furniture etc. But the apartment was so narrow. I guess it was intentional. A sign of existential and financial frustrations.
• The dialogues are so realistic. I point out the long dialogue between two imams. Two different views of Islam. Besides, the mayor’s conversations and the mayor’s entrepreneur friend’s tirade. Moreover, polemics in local literary circles…
• I could only find female characters not exactly suited to those local scenes. They looked urbaner than they pretended to…