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Alin Taşçıyan, Golden Boll Retrospective, June 2009 It is very unfair to downsize the Turkish cinema to one director, but for the time being Nun Bilge Ceylan is established as 'the Turkish filmmaker'known to the world. He stands for the Turkish cinema the way TheoAngelopoulos stands for the Greek cinema. One of his many abilities is that he is not only a talented artist but he has a commercial mind, he is fully aware of the necessity of a careful career management. Of Turkish descent and nationality, living and making films in Turkey, in Turkish language Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been able to create a universal language through his cinematographical skills. His exceptionally beautiful films have been awarded in international film festivals and critically acclaimed in every country they have been released. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's style is immediately recognized with their unique beauty. He is defined as one of the strongest personalities behind a camera in the contemporary cinema. Nuri Bilge Ceylan is best known with his third feature film "Uzak/Distant" that won the Grand Prix and the Best Actor prizes (for Muzaffer Ozdemir and Mehmet Emin Toprak) in 2003 Cannes Film Festival. In 2008 he was honoured in Cannes again, this time with a Best Director prize for his fifth feature film "Of Maymun/Three Monkeys". However, the story of his success goes a long way back in his exceptional career. All his works, including his debut short film "Koza", have won many important prizes. The name Nuri Bilge Ceylan first captured the attention of the art circles in Turkey as a promising photographer. IFSAK – Istanbul Photography and Cinema Amateurs' Club exhibited some of his early works. Having graduated from the University ofBosphorous with an MSc in electrical engineering Ceylan did not feel that this was the right occupation for him. Since he did not want to become an electrical engineer, he took photography as a serious hobby. His quest for the meaning of life took him from London to Nepal, from working as a waiter in the restaurants to illegally crossing border to India because he was penniless! This adventurous youth must have led him to the wisdom he generously shares with the audience through his films. Ceylan's films are aesthetical meditations on life, nature and time. He observes the universe and tries to find the cosmic links: Where does the wind that shakes the leaves of the trees and cools our faces come from? And the snow covering all surfaces with its silent whiteness? How does a person feel when he is deeply disappointed with himself? How does a man and a woman relate to each other? Why human beings are constantly bored and annoyed? What is it that we always look for and never find, what we always long for and never satisfied with? An independant filmmaker in both financial and creative senses, Nuri Bilge Ceylan has many existential questions in his mind and tries to find answers to them by filmmaking. Almost all his films are partly autobiographical. His childhood in an idyllic Northwestern Anatolian small town, his relatives and relations has given him enough material for four feature and one short film: "Koza/Cocoon" (1994), "Kasaba/Small Town"(1997), "Mayis Sikintisi / Clouds of May" (1999), "Uzak/Distant" (2001), "Iklimler/Climates" (2006). For his latest feature film 'Three Monkeys" he changed style and attitude. He workedwith professional actors in this moralist portrayal of a family crisis. All these films make up a body of work, which is both very personal and universal at the same time. Nature itself as well as human nature, time of the nature and men's perception of it are essential elements in Ceylan's cinema. The harmony of its content and visual style derives from these elements. Ceylan likes long sequences, fixed shots, and a slow pace in order to leave space to the audience to reflect, because there is a continious change and motion in the nature, but it seems to be still to men's eyes. The earth turns, clouds pass by, flowers bloom, day turns into night and night into day, sun shines, rain drops, seasons change, climates vary, children grow, men grow old. There is a reason and a meaning behind all of these. The fact that they happen around us all the time does not mean that life is insignificant. Ceylan finds the poetry and the philosophy of our existence in the universe through the simplicity of life just like the way Chekhov, Tarkovsky, Ozu, Kiarostami and other great masters of art did. The long fixed shots of his characters watching the nature, looking to the horizon aim to indicate that the moral struggle inside of a person never stops. A person has conflicts, contradictions, crisis, regrets, disappointments, desperation, worries, anger, envy... Given the situation and location in the film, Ceylan lets us to use our experiences to name their feelings. He takes out the motion inside the stillness, the music inside the silence with his exquisite talent and wisdom. "Koza/Cocoon" was not only the poetic story of an aging couple coming together in a cabin in the woods after a break up but also the annunciation of a visual master. It was as if a filmmaker was getting out of his cocoon of photography. His masterful compositions of light and figure were developing a sense of cinema. "Koza/Cocoon" was selected for the Short Film Competition in Cannes. Ceylan's feature film debut "Kasaba/Small Town" has all the clues that lead to his masterpieces "Mayıs Sikintisi/Clouds of May" and "Uzak/Distant". Apart from its international honours, "Kasaba /Small Town" was selected for the Forum section of Berlin Film Festival and won the prestigious Caligari Prize. Divided into three episodes, each giving a fracture of small town life through the eyes of two sib/ings, "Kasaba" creates an almost fairy tale like atmosphere. The road to school, the classroom, the fool of the town and the family gathering around the fire during the harvest become magical images and experiences. Dreamlike "Kasaba/Smalltown", which apparently is based on Ceylan and his sister's childhood memories, turns into a conscious comparison of adult life in the countryside and city in "Mayis Sikintisi/Clouds of May". With an elegant sense of humour, Ceylan places his alter ego on the screen. A selfish director from the city goes back to his native small town to make a film in which his family is supposed to act. He disregards his father and cousin's worries. The father is concerned about the confiscation of the wood he grew on his land and the cousin is a young man who feels himself trapped in. In both of the films the town is Yenice, a prefecture ofCanakkale (Dardanelles) where Ceylan actually spent his childhood. His third feature "Uzak/Distant" also begins in Yenice. The young man who wants to leave the small town in the first two films comes to Istanbul in order to find work in a ship. He stays with his cousin who once hoped to make films like Tarkovsky, but became a commercial photographer. The distance between two cousins, city and countryside lifestyles, who we wanted to be and who we really are, the place where we want to leave but stays deep inside of us builds up an excellent structure for this film. The exclusive and at times mesmerizing Istanbul under the snow adds flavour to "Uzak/Distant". In "Iklimler/Climates" Ceylan surprises us once again with his cinematographical skills: According to many distinguished film critics, "Iklimler/Climates" is the most beautiful film ever shot on HD (High Definition). It is also his most playful and ironic work. This time Ceylan focuses on the battle of sexes. How a forty some intellectual handle his relationship with women is the subject of this film. He is a macho in disguise, unable to express his affection, love and/or sexual intercourse is a kind of conquest for him. Ceylan usually gives the parts to his own parents, sister, cousins and friends in his films instead of professional actors. His attitude is to prefer the natural acting of amateurs (models) instead of professionals like Bresson suggested. Unlike Bresson, he kept on working with the members of his family because he found it very comfortable and convenient since the projects were linked together by chance. "Iklimler/Climates" he took also the lead with his wife Ebru Yapici Ceylan. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's fifth feature "Of Maymun/Three Monkeys" fortified his status as a contemporary master. He enjoyed the art and craftsmanship of directing in this visually strong drama. He went on to explore the aesthetical probabilities ofHD and used them to create the ambiance he needs for this film. He maximized the effect of atmospheric events, turning them into a kind of divine intervention to his characters' sins. He merited the Best Director Award in Cannes Film Festival.
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