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UZAK
****
A turkish arthouse picture with
little dialogue and featuring two characters who spend their evenings
confined to an Istanbul apartment might not seem an enticing prospect.
But this precisely paced, sensitively performed drama speaks volumes about
the growing distance that modern urban living is putting between people
who would otherwise have so much in common. The contrast between Mehmet Emin
Toprakís naive bumpkin and Muzaffer Ozdemir's city sophisticate is established
in the broadest terms. But director Nuri Bilge Ceylan subtly refines their
situations to reveal that beneath Toprak's gauche optimism and Ozdemirís
tetchy despondency, these are painfully lonely men whose inability to
communicate is as much responsible for their respective plights as economic
depression and marital breakdown. The use of snow as a symbol of
isolation is beautifully done, but Ceylan's handling of landscape and
decor throughout draws comparison with those masters of alienation, Michelangelo
Antonioni and Theo Angelopoulos. The leads shared the Best Actor prize
at Cannes, but Toprak was killed in a car crash shortly afterwards. Ironically,
this tragedy only reinforces the central theme of making the most of fleeting
contentment.
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