Uzak (2002)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Writer:

Nuri Bilge Ceylan (writer)

Release Date:

20 December 2002 (Turkey)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Mahmut, a 40 year old independent photographer, is a "village boy made good" at least professionally in the big city - Istanbul in this case...

Plot Keywords:

Istanbul | Car | Dream | Surrealism | Hospital

Awards:

18 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Muzaffer Özdemir	...	Mahmut
Emin Toprak	...	Yusuf
Zuhal Gencer	...	Nazan (as Zuhal Gencer Erkaya)
Nazan Kirilmis	...	Lover
Feridun Koc	...	Janitor
Fatma Ceylan	...	Mother
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Arif Asçi
Nazli Aydin
Ahmet Bugay
Ebru Ceylan		(as Ebru Yapici)
Ayhan Ergürsel
Erhan Ersoy
Cemal Gülas
Engin Hepsev
Ercan Kesal
Hakan Kuldan
Asli Orhun
Ahmet Özyurt
Bahaltin Surler

Also Known As:

Distant (International: English title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Turkey

Language:

Turkish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hungary:14 | South Korea:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Argentina:13 | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Istanbul, Turkey

Company:

NBC Ajans

Trivia:

In an interview, director Nuri Bilge Ceylan says that he actually didn't have any idea of shooting Yusuf's outdoor scenes in a snowy Istanbul. However, Ceylan woke up one day and saw that the city was covered in snow, so he decided to shoot those scenes that day.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Bangmunja (2005)

This is the true Turkish expeirence... in the universal sense

I am very thankful that the small college town of Abingdon, Va.- near Bristol, TN. and home of the famous Barter Theatre where Gregory Peck once acted- managed to get an art film festival togather and show this film there. Abingdon is two and a hour hours from where I live, but the trip was worth it in every sense of the word. UZAK/DISTANT is an amazing, brilliant, jarring, emotional, captivating film. As a Turkish-American, this film was not only a testimony as to what life in Turkey is like; but on a larger scale it tells the world of what it is like to be Turkish whether one lives in Istanbul, Berlin, Montreal, New York, or Omaha. It may be two hours in length as opposed to five minutes, but this is effectively our Bob Marley song. There are so many wonderful scenes in this film. It is very difficult to choose just a random few. But, for me, one telling scene takes place in a Beyoglu (downtown Istanbul) cinema. The title character, played by Mehmet Emin Toprak who sadly died in a car accident shortly after this film's completion, follows a very attractive young woman down a staircase to the cinema's main auditorium. She goes into see "Vanilla Sky." As the image of Tom Cruise is reflected from a glass, we sense that Turkish men are competing with Tom Cruise for their own women's affections even though Tom Cruise is nowhere to found in Beyoglu. The scenes shot across the Bosphorous shores are also quite revealing as they symbolize the beauty, yet desperate empty gulfs, which are a painful fact of life in Turkey. In this film, the gulf separates lovers and families. A simple, empty packet of Samsun (Turkish brand) cigarettes and a dying mouse jump off the screen the way seagulls did in the 1982 Serif Goren-Yilmaz Guney film "Yol." Many of Guney's films, including "Yol," "Suru- the Herd" (1978- completed by Zeki Okten) and "Baba-The Father" (1971) have been considered by many to be the best Turkish films ever made. Without Guney's sometimes overblown social-political anger (especially in his last film, the 1983 prison drama "Duvar-The Wall"), "Distance" captures the essence of Turkish life quite remarkably. This is a crowning achievement for a director who in my view can already be proclaimed as the Turkish equivalent to directors like Tarkovsky, Bresson, and Ozu. I can't wait to see his other films!