Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da (2011)

Director:

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Writers:

Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Ebru Ceylan
(more)

Release Date:

23 September 2011 (Turkey)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

A group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes.

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Murder | Dead Body | Police | Prosecutor

Awards:

6 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Muhammet Uzuner	...	Doctor Cemal
Yilmaz Erdogan	...	Commissar Naci
Taner Birsel	...	Prosecutor Nusret
Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan	...	Driver Arab Ali
Firat Tanis	...	Suspect Kenan
Ercan Kesal	...	Mukhtar
Erol Erarslan	...	Murder Victim Yasar
Ugur Aslanoglu	...	Courthouse Driver Tevfik
Murat Kiliç	...	Police Officer Izzet
Safak Karali	...	Courthouse Clerk Abidin
Emre Sen	...	Sergeant Onder
Burhan Yildiz	...	Suspect Ramazan
Nihan Okutucu	...	Yasar's wife Gülnaz
Cansu Demirci	...	Mukhtar's Daughter Cemile
Kubilay Tunçer	...	Autopsy Technician Sakir
Salih Ünal	...	Hospital Cook Hamit
Aziz Izzet Biçici	...	Restaurant Owner Kazim
Celal Acaralp	...	Pharmacist Saim
Emin Toprak	...	Hamam Scrubber (as Mehmet Eren Topçak)
Ufuk Karaali	...	Hospital Attendant Sitki
Fevzi Müftüoglu	...	1st Digger Hayrettin
Turgay Kürkçü	...	2nd Digger Ethem
Fatih Ereli	...	Gülnaz's son Adem
Hüseyin Bekeç	...	1st Soldier
Mehmet Emin Öztürk	...	2nd Soldier (as Mehmet Öztürk)

Directed by
Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ebru Ceylan
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Ercan Kesal

Produced by
Murat Akdilek	....	co-producer
Eda Arikan	....	co-producer
Nuri Bilge Ceylan	....	co-producer
Müge Kolat	....	co-producer
Zeynep Ozbatur Atakan	....	producer
Mirsad Purivatra	....	co-producer
Ibrahim Sahin	....	co-producer

Cinematography by
Gökhan Tiryaki

Casting by
Nimet Atasoy
Selim Ünel

Production Design by
Çagri Erdogan

Art Direction by
Dilek Yapkuöz Ayaztuna

Production Management
Onur Yildiz	....	assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sahin Cetinkaya	....	assistant director
Özgür Sevimli	....	first assistant director
Alkim Özmen	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Lucien Yang	....	movie poster designer

Sound Department
Erkan Altinok	....	sound designer
François Lepeuple	....	foley artist
Thomas Robert	....	sound editor
Agce Ulas	....	sound re-recording mixer

Visual Effects by
Murat Izzet Arslan	....	post-production supervisor
Yves Delforge	....	visual effects supervisor
Gokcecan Gursoy	....	visual effects artist
Daniel Sanders	....	visual effects artist

Editorial Department
James C. Norman	....	colorist
Bora Suel	....	assistant editor

Production Companies

• Zeynofilm
• Production 2006
• 1000 Volt
• Turkish Radio & Television (TRT)
• Imaj
• Fida Film
• NBC Film

Distributors

• AmaFilms (2011) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Cinema Guild, The (2011) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Kinostar (2012) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Memento Films (2012) (France) (theatrical)
• trigon-film (2011) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Leopardo Filmes (2012) (Portugal) (all media)
• Lighthouse Home Entertainment (2012) (Germany) (DVD)
• trigon-film (2011) (Switzerland) (DVD) (Special edition)

Other Companies

• 1000 Volt  post-production
• Don Kisot Casting  original casting

Also Known As:

"Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" - International (English title) (imdb display title)
"Однажды в Анатолии" - Russia
"Era Uma Vez na Anatólia" - Portugal (imdb display title)
"Il était une fois en Anatolie" - France (imdb display title)
"Kapote stin Anatolia" - Greece (imdb display title)
"Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" - Germany (imdb display title)
"Pewnego razu w Anatolii" - Poland (imdb display title)

Runtime:

150 min

Country:

Turkey | Bosnia and Herzegovina

Language:

Turkish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | Ireland:15A | UK:15 | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Central Anatolia, Turkey

Company:

Zeynofilm

Trivia:

Turkey's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Once the deceased body is discovered you can see the "corpse's" thumb briefly twitch.

Once Upon A Time In Flatland

My daughter and I both agreed on this one before and after watching it: beforehand we were both interested in the story as advertised and that it won at Cannes, after seeing it we both consigned it to the Art Too Clever For Me dustbin.

Cops get thug to show them where murdered man is buried in various wildernesses, with a childish intermittent subplot interrupting at random. Nothing wrong with that, but also rambling, lazily incoherent, overlong, pretentious with an undisciplined end spring to mind. Well acted with great cinematography, however so many Arty longueurs abound, stretching the film out almost as long the Anatolian horizons. Whereas Kurosawa or even Bergman could mean something with apparent pointless plotlessness this utterly fails. It needed a Kurosawa to inject some life, some interest. After 2 hours or so I realised I wasn't the slightest bit interested in any of the characters, their stories or surroundings, but only to make it to the end of its long and winding road to complete it, press delete and log off. A totally well made unmoving 2D experience.

On the other hand, the first 45 minutes were OK with some atmospheric scenes, that is before you guess that this particular football match is going to end up goalless. It slowed down disastrously after the cop stopped asking Huh. So-called realism abounds, however were all the schlurpy sounds at the laidback autopsy really necessary? You'll probably need to make up your own mind but to my mind this is Artifice, not Art; or like watching paint drying, not admiring a colourful canvas. Oh well, you win some you lose some.