Uzak (2002)

Director:

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Writers:

Nuri Bilge Ceylan (scenario)
Cemil Kavukçu (additional writing)

Release Date:

20 December 2002 (Turkey)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Mahmut, a 40 year old independent photographer, is a "village boy made good" at least professionally in the big city - Istanbul in this case...

Plot Keywords:

Ship | Factory | Car | Photographer | Snow

Awards:

24 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Muzaffer Özdemir	...	Mahmut
Emin Toprak	...	Yusuf (as Mehmet Emin Toprak)
Zuhal Gencer	...	Nazan (as Zuhal Gencer Erkaya)
Nazan Kirilmis	...	Lover
Feridun Koc	...	Janitor (as Feridun Koç)
Fatma Ceylan	...	Mother
Ebru Ceylan		(as Ebru Yapici)
Bahaltin Surler		(as Bahattin Serter)
Nazli Aydin
Engin Hepsev
Ercan Kesal
Asli Orhun
Ahmet Bugay
Arif Asçi
Cemal Gülas
Ahmet Özyurt
Erhan Ersoy
Hakan Kuldan
Ayhan Ergürsel

Directed by
Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan		scenario
Cemil Kavukçu		additional writing

Produced by
Nuri Bilge Ceylan	....	producer
Feridun Koc	....	line producer

Cinematography by
Nuri Bilge Ceylan		(director of photography) (as N. B. Ceylan)

Film Editing by
Nuri Bilge Ceylan		(as N. B. Ceylan)
Ayhan Ergürsel

Production Management
Feridun Koc	....	production manager (as Feridun Koç)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Serkan Cindoruk	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Adnan Sahin	....	color supervisor

Sound Department
Erkan Aktas	....	sound mixer
Ismail Karadas	....	sound
Richard Welsh	....	dolby sound consultant

Camera and Electrical Department
Turksoy Golebeyi	....	assistant camera (as Türksoy Gölebeyi)
Zafer Saka	....	set & lighting utility

Editorial Department
Tuncay Koçtürk	....	negative cutter
Mustafa Oruç	....	negative & positive bathing
Erol Sahin	....	printing
Mustafa Sahin	....	negative & positive bathing
Zekeriya Sahin	....	printing
Eyüp Yildiz	....	negative cutter
Yahya Öztürk	....	negative & positive bathing

Thanks
Alaeddin Aksoy	....	thanks
Asiye Aksoy	....	thanks
Arif Asçi	....	thanks
Necmi Aykar	....	thanks
Asiye Bodur	....	thanks
Ebru Ceylan	....	thanks (as Ebru Yapici)
Emine Ceylan	....	thanks
Zeki Demirkubuz	....	thanks
Sadik Incesu	....	thanks
Cemil Kavukçu	....	thanks
Temel Kerimoglu	....	thanks
Kadir Kubasik	....	thanks
Hakan Kürtür	....	thanks
Cemal Okan	....	thanks
Serdar Pehlivanoglu	....	thanks
Keriman Ulusoy	....	thanks
Ahmet Çadirci	....	thanks
Kamer Çelik	....	thanks
Reis Çelik	....	thanks
Yüksel Öztürk	....	thanks
Ahmet Özyurt	....	thanks
Metin Üstündag	....	thanks

Production Companies

• NBC Ajans
• NBC Film

Distributors

• Filmcoopi Zürich (2003) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Lady Film (2004) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Mirada Distribution (2009) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Argentina Video Home (2010) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Artificial Eye (2004) (UK) (all media)
• Mongrel Media (2004) (Canada) (all media)
• New Yorker Films (2004) (USA) (subtitled)
• Pelicanfilms (2004) (Switzerland) (DVD)
• Özen Film

Also Known As:

"Distant" - International (English title)
"Lejano" - Argentina (new title), Spain
"Lointain" - Canada (French title), France (subtitle)
"Distante" - Argentina (festival title)
"Makria" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
"Messze" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"Uzak" - France
"Uzak" - Italy
"Uzak - Longínquo" - Portugal (imdb display title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Turkey

Language:

Turkish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hungary:14 | South Korea:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Argentina:13 | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Istanbul, Turkey

Company:

NBC Ajans

Trivia:

The car Mahmut drives all through the film, a Smart, is actually the director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's own.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Bangmunja (2005)

This is the true Turkish expeirence... in the universal sense

I am very thankful that the small college town of Abingdon, Va.- near Bristol, TN. and home of the famous Barter Theatre where Gregory Peck once acted- managed to get an art film festival togather and show this film there. Abingdon is two and a hour hours from where I live, but the trip was worth it in every sense of the word. UZAK/DISTANT is an amazing, brilliant, jarring, emotional, captivating film. As a Turkish-American, this film was not only a testimony as to what life in Turkey is like; but on a larger scale it tells the world of what it is like to be Turkish whether one lives in Istanbul, Berlin, Montreal, New York, or Omaha. It may be two hours in length as opposed to five minutes, but this is effectively our Bob Marley song. There are so many wonderful scenes in this film. It is very difficult to choose just a random few. But, for me, one telling scene takes place in a Beyoglu (downtown Istanbul) cinema. The title character, played by Mehmet Emin Toprak who sadly died in a car accident shortly after this film's completion, follows a very attractive young woman down a staircase to the cinema's main auditorium. She goes into see "Vanilla Sky." As the image of Tom Cruise is reflected from a glass, we sense that Turkish men are competing with Tom Cruise for their own women's affections even though Tom Cruise is nowhere to found in Beyoglu. The scenes shot across the Bosphorous shores are also quite revealing as they symbolize the beauty, yet desperate empty gulfs, which are a painful fact of life in Turkey. In this film, the gulf separates lovers and families. A simple, empty packet of Samsun (Turkish brand) cigarettes and a dying mouse jump off the screen the way seagulls did in the 1982 Serif Goren-Yilmaz Guney film "Yol." Many of Guney's films, including "Yol," "Suru- the Herd" (1978- completed by Zeki Okten) and "Baba-The Father" (1971) have been considered by many to be the best Turkish films ever made. Without Guney's sometimes overblown social-political anger (especially in his last film, the 1983 prison drama "Duvar-The Wall"), "Distance" captures the essence of Turkish life quite remarkably. This is a crowning achievement for a director who in my view can already be proclaimed as the Turkish equivalent to directors like Tarkovsky, Bresson, and Ozu. I can't wait to see his other films!