In the last five years, Turkish film director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has won the Grand Jury, FIPRESCI (the International Federation of Film Critics) and Best Director prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2008, he was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or award with his film “Uç Maymun” (Three Monkeys). Eventually, he took home the award for the Best Director. (For a trailer of Three Monkeys click here)

Ceylan’s first visit to the Cannes Film Festival goes back to 1995 when his first, black and white short film “Koza” Cocoon was screened there. His “Uzak” (Distant) won the Grand Jury and the Best Actor prizes in 2003, while “Iklimler” (Climates) won the FIPRESCI Movie Critics award in 2006. Better known among high-brow cinephiles in Turkey and the EU than among the mainstream Turkish audience, Ceylan received his Grand Jury award in 2003 from the music legend Sting, who thus added his name next to celebrated filmmakers like Federico Fellini, Andrei Tarkowski, Lars Von Trier and Theo Angelopoulos.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan was originally a photographer. He has developed a unique minimalist style, often focusing on themes of alienation. Strong autobiographical elements are predominant in all of his films. Ceylan’s cinema is not for the movie goers who view cinema only as a form of entertainment, but for those who revere art-house film-making. Around 20 000 viewers watched “Uzak” in Turkey, and this number almost quadrupled in France.

Rural landscape and decaying big cities

Ceylan’s films reflect his other identity as a photographer, with landscape images drawing the viewers into stillness, long sequences, amateur acting, and minimum dialogue. His films are minimalist, in the truest sense of the word. His movies are, literally and metaphorically, journeys back home. They take Ceylan to his hometown where parents, relatives and friends become actors.

The strong autobiographical elements reflect alienation of individuals in modern world, their existential angst in the face of change, monotony as opposed to constant movement, and power of small details in everyday life. It is not that easy to engage into Ceylan’s movies. More than following the story, you need to immerse yourself into the still world of his rural landscapes or decaying big cities.

Ceylan is not a fan of visual effects and sound effects, dubbing, or even musical score. That’s one of the occasional criticisms of his cinema. But he is not one to give in to popular demands or to a high number of audiences. He is shy in front of attention and the media. He is often compared to another auteur, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, with his awe of grand rural landscapes, child protagonists and themes on existential issues.

A quick look at the names of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s movies would actually give an accurate picture on his filmmaking: Cocoon, Small Town, Clouds of May (the direct translation from Turkish would be Anguish or Boredom of May), Distant and Climates.

Ceylan's epic filmic language

Ceylan's debut film “Kasaba” (The Small Town) tells, through the eyes of two children, the story of three generations of an extended family living in a small town. The stories unfold in four parts, each corresponding to a season. The film had its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 1998, and went on to win seven awards in various international film festivals.

Two years later, his second feature film “Mayis Sikintisi” (Clouds of May) premiered also at the Berlin Film Festival. It was selected into the official competition. Probably the most autobiographical of Ceylan's works, the film has in its centre a filmmaker going back to his hometown to shoot a film. The month of May that year is warmer and more oppressive, also thanks to the arrival of Muzaffer, the protagonist. “Mayis Sikintisi” connects three generations of men, including Muzaffer’s father and his nine year-old nephew. The film won even more awards than its predecessor, gathering as many as 30 awards in international and national festivals.

The most renowned work of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, “Uzak” (Distant), even surpassed the success of “Mayis Sikintisi.” It won the 2003 the Grand Jury prize at Cannes. This time the stillness and melancholy move to Istanbul, with two middle-aged men from similar backgrounds as the film's central characters. The film also features Ceylan and his real life wife Ebru Ceylan as a troubled couple whose marriage is falling apart.

Three Monkeys, a Turkish-French-Italian joint production, is the most recent trademark movie of the auteur. It depicts a quiet suffocation embracing a Turkish family from the suburbs. Famous Turkish singer Yavuz Bingol, actress Hatice Aslan and newcomer Ahmet Rifat Sungar star as a family in crisis, living in a harsh city where having the ends met requires more than hard work. The minimal dialogue helped an international audience to immerse into a story equivalent to Greek tragedies, and the three actors impressed audiences all over Europe. As all of his works, the film operates on different levels. In the end it is up to the audience to combine different impressions to a full picture. His films challenge the audience instead of absorbing it into passive consumption. They inspire thought and demand reflection auf the cinema goers and are therefore made to last.