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Uzak
Marrigje de Bok , The Power of Culture (Nederlands),
January 2004
Turkish moviemaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan
personally makes and produces his films together with family and friends.
His movie UZAK (VER) won the Grand Prix du Jury in Cannes, with the prize
for best actor going collectively to the two main characters, portrayed
by Muzaffer Ozdemir and Mehmet Emin Toprak. UZAK will be shown at the
film festival in Rotterdam and will be released in the Netherlands on
26 February.
Uzak was filmed in wintry Istanbul, in long shots that are often nearly
photographic. A village sleeping in the snow against a hill, a road leading
to the city. A man on his way from the village to the city. Then a man
in his flat, with a hazy woman's figure in the background that is getting
undressed. The first words spoken in the film come from the answering
machine for Mahmut, who lives in the flat.
Mahmut is a photographer with lost ambitions. His marriage failed. Now
he photographs tiles for advertising folders and sometimes welcomes a
woman for a few hours. His expression is not bitter; he almost seems at
ease with his loneliness.
Cousin Yusuf unexpectedly arrives on Mahmut's doorstep. He wants to find
work at sea now that he has been fired from the factory. Initially the
two men live virtually in ignorance of one another. At night Mahmut sniffs
his cousin's shoes, treats them with a spray and places them in a cupboard.
Yusuf secretly calls his mother while Mahmut is secretly watching a porn
movie. It becomes increasingly difficult for the men to avoid one another.
Mahmut gets caught in his own
mousetrap of glue when Yusuf nearly catches him listening in on a telephone
conversation. Yusuf is even still present when he leaves one evening at
Mahmut's request: beer cans and flowing ashtrays infuriate Mahmut. Tension
rises when Mahmut believes that Yusuf is responsible for the disappearance
of his silver watch. He even keeps suspecting his cousin after he finds
the watch. Yusuf is clearly insulted. He leaves as unexpectedly as he
arrived. The keys are left hanging on a coat hook, his sleeping bag rolled
up on his bed.
Ceylan's filming technique and storytelling are woven into a beautiful
whole. The scenes do not tell details and keep the viewers at a distance.
Even the two main characters do not converse much. Nevertheless, much
is made clear by Ceylan. At the end, for example, when Mehmet is sitting
on a bench alongside the Bosporus, in the cold and wind. He stares out
over the grey surface of the water for minutes on end. He is smoking a
cigarette from the pack his cousin left behind. He inhales deeply, forcefully
blows the smoke out. To freedom.
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