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Three Monkeys, another fascinating film of N. B. Ceylan
Three Monkeys Turkey, 2008, 109 min The famous Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the Best Director award with Three Monkeys earlier this year at the Cannes film festival. The cast is composed of Yavuz Bingöl, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, and Ercan Kesal. This is a very potent and expressive film, full of gloomy reflections, what Ceylan is famous for. The locations are chosen very diligently in beautiful Istanbul; and with superb cinematography, each frame is a work of art. The acting is also stupendous with characters not needing to talk much to convey the story or the mood. My breath was taken away to see how beautiful and powerful cinema could still be. The film reminded me of classical European cinema, but the story and locations are of contemporary Turkey, which makes this film uniquely impressive. Here is the plot as written at the VIFF official site by Nick James: A car being driven erratically along a dark country road has almost disappeared into the inky distance when it squeals to a halt. Soon Eyüp, a driver (played by singer Yavuz Bingöl), is being asked by his boss to take the rap for killing a pedestrian. He agrees to go to prison in return for money, leaving his wife and teenage son to stray from their fixed family roles of nurturer and student. During a hot summer the boy drifts into dubious friendships, while the wife strays into an affair with the boss. The boy discovers his mother's betrayal, but feels powerless to act. Ceylan plays with the infinite possibilities of the situation, feinting one way then the other, building a suspense matched by sound and images of brooding portent. When Eyüp returns, the tension becomes almost unbearable. In a larger scale, the film also studies the effects of economic distress and moral decay in the society over an average Turkish family, and the male dominance and sexual oppression in certain sections of the Turkish society today. Worth watching over and over for classic cinema lovers, and for those who try to understand Turkish family and male-female dynamics. Directed
By: Nuri Bilge Ceylan PROD: Zeynep
Özbatur The title of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's bruise-black noir is a reference to the evil that mutes, deafens and blinds. Ceylan captured the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year for this powerful work. "Nuri Bilge Ceylan is, of course, the Turkish director best known for his sombre meditations, such as Distant and Climates, on the potential for weakness to ruin the most intimate relationships. In Three Monkeys we find him moving into more expressionist territory. When Eyüp returns, the tension becomes almost unbearable. If it's a step away from the kind of films that made Ceylan's name, it's a welcome one."-Nick James, Sight & Sound. By Bahar
Çinarli September 2008 Old Articles
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