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Oct-Dec 2010 Screenings
Uzak
(Distant)
2003 - Nuri Bilge Ceylan - 110 mins - Turkey/Netherlands
Fri 22 Apr 2005 at 8.30pm
Astor Cinema, Scariff
Storyline: Yusuf (Mehmet Emin Toprak) has left his village looking for work and has invited himself to stay with his older cousin Mahmut (Muzaffer Özdemir), a craggy loner who came to Istanbul years ago and has managed to reinvent himself as a successful photographer. The movie is carefully framed, the camera is more observer than participant, and there are lengthy passages without dialogue. The emphasis falls on the space between people — and their failure to bridge that void. The pale light and the constant chill are pervasive presences. Ceylan’s exotic Istanbul is a hushed and wintry world of secular alienation, broken marriages, and artistic angst. A hit in competition at Cannes (winner of the Grand Jury Prize as well as Best Actor Award for its two leads), Uzak is an unmistakable art film from an unlikely source. Thoughtfully orchestrated and filled with visual wit, the movie is predicated on a sense of lives that converge but never intersect.
Verdicts from the Midnight Court