Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia from Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan could be best be described as being as lost as the desolate Anatolian landscape in which it was shot. Wide panoramic landscapes, sweeping continuous takes, use of other atmospheric devices and some initial light-hearted dialogue for the principal characters, does not subsequently salvage a film which has a sparse and threadbare storyline. The film is centred on a group of men searching for the corpse of a murder victim in the Anatolian countryside. The group includes the Chief of Police, the Prosecutor, a court doctor, police officers, grave diggers and the alleged suspects being held in custody (who have ageed to lead the group to the location of the body). Almost half of the film covers the group's travels across the countryside mostly in the darkness of night. The is no doubt as to the guilt of the perpetrators so this is not a thriller or 'whodunnit' murder investigation. A mystifying element of the film is the abrupt switch from the group and its key leaders to an almost exclusive and narrow focus on the doctor alone with no indication or clues given for this change. Many minutes are spent with the doctor's brooding, contemplative face on screen without any dialogue. This creates a disjointed narrative without adding anything to the overall understanding of the story, such as it is. Perhaps more mystifying is the fact this film won the Grand Prix at Cannes.