
In the rural area around the Anatolian town of Keskin, the local prosecutor, police commissar, and doctor lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is proving more difficult than expected as Kenan is fuzzy as to the body's exact location. As the group continues looking, its members can't help but chat among themselves about both trivia and their deepest concerns in an investigation t... (Full plot summary below)
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In the rural area around the Anatolian town of Keskin, the local prosecutor, police commissar, and doctor lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is proving more difficult than expected as Kenan is fuzzy as to the body's exact location. As the group continues looking, its members can't help but chat among themselves about both trivia and their deepest concerns in an investigation that is proving more trying than any of them expected.
Leave your thoughts about Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.
| Washington PostMichael O'SullivanA movie of such dark, smoldering intensity that it's easy to forget that half of it takes place in near darkness. |
| DCistPat PaduaA profoundly beautiful film that revels in the lyrical and the mundane, and suggests that art does transcend the futility of existence. |
| Jam! MoviesLiz BraunStories are told, told again later, embellished. Slowly but surely, each of the characters becomes three dimensional and early impressions change and change again. |
| Time OutDave CalhounCeylan's visual style is less heightened, more down-to-earth than the more stylised 'Three Monkeys', but still some of the night-time scenes look like careful paintings, such is the precision of their lighting and composition. |
| Little White LiesDavid JenkinsCeylan has forged a new template for the police procedural. |
| GuardianPeter BradshawWith his two early features, "Distant" (2002) and "Climates" (2006), Ceylan has showed himself a superb film-maker. This is his greatest so far. |
| Minneapolis Star TribuneColin CovertIt is epic in its aims and achievements yet modest in its resources: some superb actors, stunning landscapes and a resonant, understated script. |
| Financial TimesNigel AndrewsIf you're in a hurry, don't go near this film. If you're not in a hurry, don't go anywhere else. It could change your life. |
| LarsenOnFilmJosh Larsen...as if a lush landscape painting is being invaded by the cinema. |
| CineVueDaniel GreenThose that can embrace its patient, visually-enthralling style and sparse, yet affecting dialogue will be rewarded with a film of grand ambition, delving deep into the human condition and questioning our very moral fabric. |