Uzak – Weit (2002)

Uzak – Weit: Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. With Muzaffer Özdemir, Mehmet Emin Toprak, Zuhal Gencer, Nazan Kesal. After his wife leaves him, a photographer has an existential crisis and tries to cope with his cousin’s visit.

“Itu0026#39;s probably a year since I saw Uzak, but it has left strong memories of the two main characters, jaded photographer Mahmut and his naive cousin from the village Yusuf.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s a long film with very little dialogue and a quite limited plot. This has evidently annoyed a fair few viewers. But the film constructs such a painfully believable portrait of Mahmut and Yusuf that thereu0026#39;s just as much emotional tension as in the paciest thriller.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJust to be clear, thereu0026#39;s no padding in this film — in the long pauses where no one speaks there as much happening in the charactersu0026#39; emotions (and in yours, watching them) as you could bear. Go to see it awake and alert, and youu0026#39;ll be gripped rather than anaesthetised.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUzak rings true in so many ways, and that sincerity is probably its greatest accomplishment. People donu0026#39;t grapple with events and problems, so much as with each other. In fact, in the whole film, thereu0026#39;s probably not one point where the main characters (Mahmut, Yusuf and Mahmutu0026#39;s ex-wife Nazan) are not opposed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMuch of it is true the world over: country cousin Yusufu0026#39;s perhaps wilfully naive expectation that a job on a ship will drop into his lap; Mahmutu0026#39;s urbanised cynicism and unwillingness to sympathise with Yusuf.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOther truths are more-specific to Turkey: Yusufu0026#39;s incomprehension that Mahmut might be tolerating his stay with gritted teeth; Yusuf veering between macho ambition and wide-eyed awkwardness when he tries to get to know a woman.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUzak is undoubtedly a pretty bleak film, and one Ceylanu0026#39;s strengths is not to beat us over the head with the themes he explores. For me at least, I believed entirely in the behaviour of his characters. All the little failed attempts to connect and petty cruelties ring so true. And yet I didnu0026#39;t leave with a message that u0026quot;The world is like thatu0026quot;, but instead I got u0026quot;This is how we sometimes treat each other.u0026quot;”