Fri, Sep 5 3:00pm TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 1
Sun, Sep 14 9:00pm TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 4 - Paul &Leah Atkinson Family Cinema
Winter Sleep
9:00 pm196 min
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes, the new film from Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) is an immersive, meditative chamber drama about a small-town innkeeper whose cultural pretensions and smug self-satisfaction are fatefully undermined over the course of an eventful winter.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan has gained a reputation as one of the most innovative and accomplished filmmakers of the early twenty-first century. Winter Sleep, winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is a magnificent addition to his growing filmography. Following on the success of Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Ceylan has made a multi-faceted work that is in many ways a departure from its predecessor.
Set in the picturesque and striking landscape of Cappadocia in Central Anatolia, Winter Sleep focuses on a small village, half-empty, in the wintry off-season. In its three-hour-plus running time it follows a kind of local celebrity, Aydin (Haluk Bilginer), an actor who runs a small hotel with his wife, writes a column for the local newspaper, and is toying with the idea of producing a book on Turkish theatre.
Like all the villagers, Aydin has time on his hands, but as Ceylan's film progresses, the director carefully strips away the veneer that surrounds this self-satisfied and insular man. Through some magnificent set pieces, beautifully written and performed, we get a close look at Aydin's interactions with his wife, his recently divorced sister, and a family of locals who are tenants of one of his properties.
With a steady, penetrating gaze reminiscent of that which Ingmar Bergman brought to his chamber pieces, Ceylan cuts through the smug self-image of a man who considers himself above the quotidian but is ultimately brought face-to-face with who and what he truly is. Controlled and spare while using its length to its advantage, Winter Sleep is compelling, hypnotic, and absolutely deadly in its aim.
PIERS HANDLING
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul. He studied cinema at Mimar Sinan University. In 2003 he was the subject of a spotlight programme at the Festival that included his debut feature, The Small Town (97); Clouds of May (00); and Distant (03), which won the Grand Prix at Cannes. His fil
ms Climates (06) and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (11) also screened at the Festival. Winter Sleep (14), which won the Palm d'Or and a FIPRESCI prize at Cannes, is his latest film.
Director(s): Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Country: Turkey/France/Germany
Year: 2013
Language: Turkish
Premiere Status: North American Premiere
Runtime: 196 minutes
Rating: 14A
CAST & CREDITS
Executive Producer: Sezgi Üstün
Producer: Zeynep Özbatur Atakan
Production Company: Zeyno Film, Memento Films
Principal Cast: Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akbag, Ayberk Pekcan, Serhat Kiliç, Nejat Isler, Tamer Levent, Nadir Saribacak, Mehmet Ali Nuroglu, Emirhan Doruktutan
Screenplay: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan
Cinematographer: Gökhan Tiryaki
Editor: Bora Göksingöl, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Production Designer: Gamze Kus
CONTACT INFORMATION
Canadian Distributor: Mongrel Media
US Distributor: Adopt Films
International Sales Agent: Memento Films
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