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'Distant'
provokes thought about loneliness
John Serba, Mlive.com (Michigan, USA), August 14, 2004
"Distant" certainly is
an appropriate title for Nuri Bilge Ceylan's film. Its two main characters
are lonely and uncommunicative, emotionally disconnected from the events
that fill their days.
Ceylan also keeps his camera detached from the story's melodramatic minutiae,
often framing a scene and letting people and things pass through it, or
enter the frame as a dot on the horizon as they slowly approach. It's
not unlike a stationary security camera, which exists merely to observe,
mostly keeping its distance from its subjects.
However, such a comparison does no justice to Ceylan's artful photography.
Shots are meticulously composed, compelling the viewer to look closely
at their details: The wrinkles in the corners of Mahmut's (Muzaffer Ozdemir)
eyes, his salt-and-pepper beard, the beautiful world-weariness on the
face of his ex-wife, Nazan (Zuhal Gencer Erkaya).
Though the movie first introduces us to Yusuf (Emin Toprak), it essentially
is Mahmut's story. He works as a photographer for a tile company in Istanbul
and, by the looks of his apartment, seems to be doing well for himself.
Yusuf travels to the city from his rural home and ends up staying with
Mahmut while he looks for a job to support his financially struggling
mother.
This simple construct is the central drama of "Distant," which
searches Mahmut and Yusuf for signs of life. Mahmut is closed off, preferring
the glow of his television over another person, and sees Yusuf simply
as an obligation and not an opportunity for some much-needed companionship.
Yusuf is unfocused, though; he's concerned for his mother's well-being
but doesn't pursue anything with passion or desire. While meeting resistance
from potential employers, he folds quickly and deems the job search to
be a lost cause, and he doesn't possess the gumption to even approach
an attractive young woman with whom he's infatuated.
The irony here is, while both men have their loneliness in common, they
still clash, preferring to focus on their differences rather than their
similarities -- which perhaps is Ceylan's comment on the human condition.
Mahmut and Yusuf prefer their own company above anyone else's, and Ozdemir
and Toprak subtly convey their unspoken longing with a wrinkled brow or
solitary gaze at the seaside.
Lonely people exist in many different states of silence, and Ceylan reflects
that in the film. Long passages occur without dialogue, and we listen
to every squeaking door, leaky sink and creaky floorboard.
While some moments fascinate, others are tedious, and, while we shift
in our seats frustrated at our difficulties in decoding the emotions of
the characters, the film's subtlety often is its strength -- that's likely
the filmmaker's point.
In other words, keeping your distance may give you the more worldly view
suggested by Ceylan's cinematography, but the result may be Mahmut's silent
tragedy. "Distant" doesn't exactly uplift or energize, but patient
viewers will discover the film almost silently shares its complex wisdom.
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