The references to Clark Gable reminded me distantly of the Gary Cooper references in Ozu's Late Spring (1949).
A grand narrative yarn spun from a number of smaller ones, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia demonstrates the truism that the more we know, the less we understand. Or is it vice versa?
— J. Hoberman (The Village Voice)
You can draw a line beginning with L’Avventura, and on through to Stalker [1979], Abraham’s Valley [1993], The Wind Will Carry Us [1999], and Aurora [2010], before arriving at Anatolia.
— Jordan Cronk (Slant Magazine)
This afternoon, as if weighed down by the accumulation of fatigue from all these years, I lay down on the bed and fell asleep, fully clothed, for several hours. When I opened my eyes, I had the impression of waking up with a new form of perception. In the silence, before my eyes, in a fluid fashion, the immobile objects in my room surrounded me with infinite affection, as if the doors of a different level of perception had just opened. I stayed lying there with my eyes open for over an hour. My senses felt completely alert. This state allowed me to take enormous pleasure in life. I understood that I don’t truly feel the emotions of everything I live, because we live at such a frenetic rhythm. It’s obvious that we should slow down the rhythm of our lives so that our senses are sharpened. Here resides my reason for liking fi lms that are slow in pace—and my desire to make this kind of fi lm. This state of mind that I felt on waking today can only appear through a slow and languorous rhythm.
— Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Synopsis: A group of men lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is proving more difficult than expected as Kenan is fuzzy as to the body's location. As the group continues looking, its members can't help but chat among themselves about both trivia and their deepest concerns.