| TURKEY |
| DISTANT |
Nuri Bilge Ceylan |
Winner of three major awards at the Istanbul
Film Festival and the Grand Jury and Best Actor Prizes at
the Cannes Film Festival, Distant tells the story of an impoverished
young man from the country who arrives in a snowy Istanbul
to stay with his cousin, a world-weary older photographer.
Yusuf is hoping to find work at the docks and eventually to
board a ship that will take him away from a troubled life.
Mahmut takes him in, despite the disruption to his ordered
and solitary life. What follows is an eloquently detailed
series of small episodes in which the passive, uncommunicative
young man and his obsessive older relative try to get along
together. Combining a sly, minimalist aesthetic with a wryly
observed character-study, writer/director/cinema-tographer
Ceylan (Clouds of May, PIFF 26) presents a film of infinite
sadness and alienation, revealed through the often funny and
touching contrasts between a man looking for his dream and
a man who has long since given his up. (110 mins.) This year’s
Turkish submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Print
courtesy of New Yorker Films.
Selected Filmography: Koza (95), The Small Town (98),
Clouds of May (99).
SHOWTIMES: 2/14, 12:30pm WH
and 2/18, 6pm B1. |
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