Uzak (2002)

Essential Viewing

Turkey

Feature Film

Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Cast: Muzaffer Özdemir, Emin Toprak

There are allusions to Tarkovsky throughout Ceylan’s Cannes favourite – a beautifully moving and subtly witty exploration of the disparate ways in which we manage to build barriers between ourselves and those around us – but its tone and content are perhaps closer in spirit to the bitter-sweet delights of Ozu and Tsai, taking, as it does, such an unjaundiced look at the beguiling nuances of human behaviour. Iain.Stott