I saw this film again a few weeks and have intended to write on it.
The first time I saw the film I was a little underwhelmed. Long takes, static camerawork, spare dialogue - a little bit of Antonioni and Tarkovsky sylistically boiled up. But I felt it lacked impact or greater meaning and with the death of one of the main actors I presumed that the film was relying on the back-story to gain the publicity and attention it did.
One year later on my recent viewing and I have entirely changed my position. Yes, there are some pointlessly long and redundant takes (the scene where both men sit watching Stalker in silence jumps to mind) but otherwise this is a magnificent and majestic exercise in a minimalistic character study.
The photographer lives a lonely life having divorced his wife to pursue his art. He is bitter and washed up, obsessing over the minutae of the flat. He originally intended to be an filmmaker like Tarkovsky and so ditched his wife to pursue the higher life or the fame or whatever. He is visited by his desperate relative who has fled the economic malaise of rural Turkey to find his way in Istanbul. He wanders helpless through the streets, lonely, desperate to find a woman and get a job on the ships.
And essentially this is the film in this relationship. Every extraneous plot device or high concept is stripped bare to leave a gem of cinematic minimalism. The cinematography is beautiful and the photograohy of Istanbul in the snow is breathtaking.
For me this is a model of how a transcendental style can be wedded to socio-economic problems and grounded everyday life.
I recommend it to everyone. Particularly a second viewing.
Uzak (distant) Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Follow up: Ceylan is the model of a low-budget filmmaker achieving high results. Most of the film was shot in his own apartment, his relative cast in one of the main roles. He did the cinematography himself and worked with available light (why don't more celluloid films do this when the medium is so generous to the situation). I think his crew consisted on two camera-assistants.
The film was funded by the Berlin Film Festival. A model for non-commercial filmmaking?
The film was funded by the Berlin Film Festival. A model for non-commercial filmmaking?