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Uzak
Peter
Walsh, Irish Film Institute, 28 May 2004
Distant
(Uzak) was one of the few great films shown in the main competition section
of the last Cannes Film Festival, where it was duly rewarded with two
major prizes. It’s the third feature by the Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge
Ceylan, a true independent who writes, produces, directs and photographs
his own movies and uses mainly non-professional actors, many of them relatives
or friends. His films are deeply personal, but they’re anything but self-indulgent
and their thematic concerns take on a universal resonance. Crucially,
Ceylan’s minimalist style is so precise and visually beautiful that it
places him amongst the top flight of contemporary European filmmakers.
Distant opens with a strikingly composed shot of a snowbound landscape,
with the tiny figure of a man leaving his village. The man is Yusuf (Mehmet
Emin Toprak), who travels to Istanbul in search of work. He stays with
his cousin Mahmut (Muzaffer Özdemir), a professional photographer who
has recently divorced and lives alone in a studio flat. Much of the film
is taken up with beautifully observed scenes depicting the uneasy relationship
between the two men. To the sophisticated and orderly Mahmut, Yusuf is
an undisciplined slob who disrupts his domestic routine. In truth, both
men are equally isolated and unfulfilled. Mahmut still hankers after his
ex-wife, who plans to emigrate to Canada with a new husband. Country boy
Yusuf feels totally adrift in the city and seems unlikely to find either
a job or a girlfriend. Ceylan observes the plight of his protagonists
with great tenderness and a beautifully understated sense of humour. He
has a rare gift for giving visual expression to the frustrations and bottled-up
emotions of city dwellers and makes excellent use of his wintry Istanbul
locations. For a film about loneliness, loss and alienation, Distant is
a remarkably uplifting cinematic experience.
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