| Once Upon a Time in Anatolia | |
| Director: | Nuri Bilge Ceylan |
| Producer: | Zeynep Özbatur Atakan |
| Starring: | Muhammet Uzuner Yılmaz Erdoğan Taner Birsel |
| Cinematography: | Gökhan Tiryaki |
| Editing: | Bora Gökşingöl Nuri Bilge Ceylan |
| Studio: | Zeyno Film |
| Distributor: | The Cinema Guild |
| Runtime: | 157 minutes |
| Country: | Turkey Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Language: | Turkish |
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Turkish: '''Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da''') is a 2011 internationally co-produced drama film, co-written and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan based on the true experience of one of the film's writers, telling the story of a group of men who search for a dead body on the Anatolian steppe. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on, premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival where it was a co-winner of the Grand Prix.
A group of men drive around at night in the rural area of Keskin looking for the buried body of murder victim Yasar Toprak. The perpetrator Kenan recalls burying him near a water fountain with his mentally challenged brother, but the fact that he was drunk during it, the lack of sunlight, and the repetitive landscapes make it difficult for him to find. As the night goes on, prosecutor Nusret tells doctor Cemal about a case he was involved in where a woman correctly informed her husband of her date of death months in advance shortly after giving birth to their child. He explains that she died of a heart attack, but Cemal points out that she could have brought it on intentionally with medication.
Commissioner Naci stops Cemal from giving Kenan a cigarette, claiming he has to earn it. The group stops at a nearby village, where the mayor asks Nusret to get Keskin to help fund a morgue, as his town is mostly populated by the elderly and their children want to see their bodies. The wind causes a power outage and the mayor's daughter brings the group tea, where the beauty of her face by lamplight causes Kenan to shed tears. He explains to Naci that he revealed that Yasar's son Adem was actually his, which caused a fight in which Yasar was killed. Naci gives him a cigarette.
As the sun rises, Kenan finds the body and the authorities realize it has been tied. They untie it, but then realize it was bound so it could fit in the trunk of Kenan's car. Having forgotten a body bag, they force it into the trunk of their car. As they return to Keskin, Adem and his mother Gülnaz watch Kenan emerge from the car. Adem hits Kenan in the head with a small stone, causing him to weep.
In conversation with Nusret, Cemal notes a specific drug that could have easily been used to induce a heart attack, which Nusret admits he is familiar with due to his father-in-law's heart problems. Nusret muses that the woman may have committed suicide because of her husband's infidelity but waited to do so after the baby was born, and the way he describes the situation implies that the woman was his wife. Gülnaz confirms that the body is Yasar, and an autopsy reveals the presence of dirt in his lungs after she leaves, indicating that he was buried alive. Cemal omits this from the report. As the technician cuts open Yasar's body, Cemal watches the remaining Topraks leave with Yasar's belongings.
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan grew up in a small town similar to the one in the film in terms of mentality and hierarchy, and says he feels a close connection to the characters depicted. The story is based on real events. One of Ceylan's co-writers was an actual doctor, and, in order to attain his license, had been required to work for two years in the town where the plot is set.
The story in the film is based on very similar events the co-writer experienced during this period. The title of the film references Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in the West, and was something one of the drivers uttered during the actual events. When writing the screenplay, the filmmakers tried to be as realistic as possible, and the main aim was to portray the special atmosphere, which had left a strong impression on the doctor. A number of quotations from stories by Anton Chekhov were incorporated in the script.[1]
The film was produced through Turkey's Zeyno Film, in co-production with the Bosnian company Production2006 Sarajevo, and the Turkish companies NBC Film, 1000 Volt Post Production, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, Imaj and Fida Film.[2] Filming took place during eleven weeks around Keskin, a district of the Kırıkkale Province in Central Anatolia.[3] It was shot in the CinemaScope format.[2]
The film has been met with critical acclaim. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 94% based on 70 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10,[4] while Metacritic gives a weighted average rating of 82 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[5]
Dave Calhoun reviewed the film for Time Out London: "Ceylan is a sly and daring screen artist of the highest order and should draw wild praise with this new film for challenging both himself and us, the audience, with this lengthy, rigorous and masterly portrait of a night and day in the life of a murder investigation." Calhoun compared the film to the director's previous works and noted how it to a lesser extent follows genre conventions: "Displaying a new interest in words and story (albeit of the most elusive kind), Once Upon A Time in Anatolia feels like a change of direction for Ceylan and may disappoint those who were especially attracted to the urbane melancholia of Uzak and Climates. ... Beyond being chronological, the film follows no obvious storytelling pattern. Things happen when they do and at a natural rhythm. ... Ceylan invites us along for the ride – but only if we're up for it."[6]
The film received the Cannes Film Festival's second most prestigious award, the Grand Prix, in a shared win with the film The Kid with a Bike by the Dardenne brothers.[7]
The film was selected as Turkey's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,[8] [9] but did not make the shortlist.[10]
Sight & Sound listed Once Upon a Time in Anatolia as the 8th best film of 2012.[11] Stephen Holden of The New York Times named it the sixth best movie of 2012, and "a searching reflection on the elusiveness of truth."[12]
In 2016, the film was named as the 54th best film of the 21st century, from a poll of 177 film critics from around the world.[13]