Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da (2011)

In the dead of night, a group of men - including a police commissioner, a prosecutor, a doctor and a murder suspect - drive through the tenebrous Anatolian countryside, the serpentine roads and rolling hills lit only by the headlights of their cars. They are searching for a corpse, the victim of a brutal murder. The suspect, who claims he was drunk, can't remember where he buried the body. As the night draws on, details about the murder emerge and the investigators' own secrets and hypocrisies come to light. In the Anatolian steppes, nothing is what it seems; and when the body is found, the real questions begin. (cinemaguild.com)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Written By: Ercan Kesal, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan
Starring: Yilmaz Erdogan, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Firat Tanis, Ercan Kesal, Taner Birsel, Muhammet Uzuner, Murat Kiliç, Erol Eraslan, Ugur Arslanoglu, Safak Karali
AKA: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Country: Turkey
Where to Stream

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Moribunny | 85 95th |
This movie consolidates Ceylan in my eyes as one of the best filmmakers working today. It is gorgeously shot, wonderfully acted and fascinating to watch, despite how slow the plot is to unravel. It is written with the subtlety and level of detail of a great novel. You come out of it feeling that your intelligence and sensitivity have been given the utmost credit, that a richly meaningful slice of life was presented to you, but not interpreted; you were allowed to figure it out on your own.
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Luna6ix | 78 66th |
It's absolutely evident within the first ten minutes that this contains stellar direction and sublime writing, I cannot deny the talent involved here. Real human characters shine through and that's a hard thing to do. My only gripe comes from Ceylan's overconfidence, his direction sometimes borders on self-indulgent, lingering for effect, yet continuing a shot until long after that effect is achieved.
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Zozan | 91 93rd |
So real.. so natural.. I could just be there in the back seat of the car, or the guy in the next table in village chiefs house, or a patient in the hospital, I could be overhearing those conversations in real life. It could only be as natural as this. Great visuals, great acting, an effortless self flowing script, two and a half hours of character discovery, a unique movie experience.
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frederic_g54 | 9 90th |
Bravura filmmaking. Space and time are treated with equal regard, in that neither contributes to the film's essence, which in many ways reflects our incomprehension of today's violence and hatred. Embedded with a few surrealistic touches that lend the film an air of mystery and discovery, Ceylan also excels at sustaining the same level of restrained intensity for 150 minutes while richly rewarding your patience. Brilliantly directed.
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4 | chengming | 90 97th |
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A comedy of incomeptence against the backdrop of spectacularly filmed Anatolia. I haven't seen many movies that carry so much dialogue yet still remain so utterly fascinating.
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SirRobbie | 80 81st |
Ceylan tells a story with pictures and a great deal of silence, and does it masterfully.
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Derekstar | 70 50th |
After hearing hype about this movie for over a year, I'm slightly let down over it. I see how it's visually beautiful, and I see the philosophical questions that they're trying to get at here. I don't see why these questions need to be spread so thinly over this long, long film. There are 20 minute stretches where the the themes of the film are ignored, and the plot rules king. The themes are interesting. The plot is not. I was not seduced by this film.
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KasperL | 60 50th |
Having loved 'Winter Sleep' and really enjoyed 'The Wild Pear Tree', this was a letdown for me. Though it is shorter than those similarly meandering, but in my opinion more masterful character studies and share some of the same qualities (great acting and cinematography), I found myself growing restless a lot. I think it's probably because this is a less talky and even more uneventful film. So uneventful, in fact, that the beautiful shot in which an apple rolls down a hill felt action-packed.
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chemical404 | 69 80th |
I don't know if this is a good word to describe this film, but 'literate' comes to mind when I think about it. It's is like a good novel - deep and carefully drawn out characters, very vivid setting and complex story. But like with novels, good writing is not enough for me to truly appreciate it. I'm looking for something that would resonate with me, and I didn't find that here. To make things worse I feel that subtleties of this complex story were lost in translation and cultural difference.
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Stradivarius | 75 51st |
The film does a lot of great things, but none of them justify its tedious editing. I waited patiently for each drawn out shot to add something to the film's themes or add meat to a character, but all I saw was flab. Cut 40 minutes from this and you'd have a masterpiece.
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astrakhan | 79 66th |
One of the hardest films of 2011 to read, in that while the guy behind the camera is doing amazing things in terms of composition/lighting/focus, and creating true art... narratively the film goes almost nowhere and purposefully remains an enigma, seemingly void of any meaning. One could describe the film as a black comedy about behaviour, professionalism and social class, but that would almost certainly be missing some central element. I feel like I've learned so much... and yet nothing :(
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filmfreak88 | 65 46th |
The film is gorgeous to look at but it feels really slow not only because the pacing is slow but also because it lacks the narrative momentum to justify its slowness. It gets significantly better as we get spurts of very subtle existential turmoil bubbling under the surface of seemingly banal conversations but they never really coalesce into some thing more resonant.
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Ryan Lueders (ReelRyan) | 10 1st |
I kept waiting for this movie to get good but it never did. The movie felt like it was just dragging its feet leading to some sort of revelation only to leave the audience wondering why they watched this 2 and a half hour film. The locations were beautiful and there was some good acting in this Turkish film but that is all the nice stuff I can say. Even the summary of this is boring "The tense story of a night spent by a doctor and prosecutor." That sure has me on pins and needles. Yawn.
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feublo | 80 57th |
Nuri's patience is incredible with story-telling, and the feel for human nature is so spot on it's exactly how I'd imagine real life plays out...regret, agony, and questions of existentialism is evident amidst each character, and a search for truth embarks in the shadows we see.
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djross | 60 62nd |
Evocative and atmospheric, with memorably impressive cinematography, but for this viewer it was ultimately more elusive than allusive. It may sound a little uncharitable, but it is hard not to feel the director has been influenced by Kiarostami (well why not?) without quite being able to reach the latter's level of singular artistic genius. My first time out with this filmmaker.
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Obdurate | 85 80th |
Definitely an absolutely stunning movie visually. The night scenes are beautiful and so well lit, the day time shots are equally as wonderful. I like the ending, and the performances by everyone are all great. Also; the script is solid. But then at the same time, I have to side with people who say it could be half an hour or so shorter. I suppose maybe it's the point but it gets a little too mundane at times. Still great, though, could have been a 95.
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Thomassejer | 35 8th |
BOOORING
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burkayadalig | 45 7th |
After all the great reviews i gave Nuri Bilge Ceylan another shot but no, i just cant stand it, i onlu could survive till the 63rd minute... unnecessary dialogues, long pauses...
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SlantMag | 15 21st |
"Nuri Bilge Ceylan has to be the least kinetic of working filmmakers--and not simply in the sense of static camerawork or lack of narrative momentum." - Andrew Schenker
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afx237vi | 60 52nd |
A languorously paced rumination on truth and human nature. Wonderfully shot and with great acting, but (at the risk of sounding like a philistine) frustratingly slow with long sections where neither plot nor themes seem to go anywhere. Certain scenes will stick with me, though, so I'm glad I watched it.
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AceySaid10% | 83 75th |
Very slow moving but incredible cinematography. The Turkish equivalent of 'No Country For Old Men' in a way.
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ratedargh | 85 75th |
Exceptionally photographed and minimal. The history of these characters is hinted at through glances and reactions, which is really what the story is more about. It's not about the search for a body...hell, it never really comes clear about why the murder occurred. The minimal nature does create a bit of a detachment, which keeps the audience at arm's length, but the mastery of craft is impressive from the beginning.
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LarsVonTrier | 4 93rd |
One of the 20 best Turkish movies. I still cannot believe how a mediocre director like Nuri Bilge Ceylan could have pulled this off. Because throughout his career all he does is imitating Kiarostami/Tarkovsky but failing miserably with his pseudo-intellectual plastic dialogues. But this one is brilliant.
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coffee | 95 98th |
I don't know the director's background but this is a spot-on reality film. Coming from a small town of Anatolia I can verify that not even one character is exaggareted. Everything is authentic. (I can't belive how good Yilmaz Erdogan was as a cop. He was beliveable up to the level of reality.)
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1 | sellis | 67 33rd |
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It's grating when a movie presumes its characters' every utterance will be spellbindingly fascinating without earning it. I didn't sense any coherent thematic conversation occurring in the 2 1/2 hours it takes for one basic plot event to happen. Characters explicitly mention "the sins of parents" but does the film explore this? Saying stuff isn't exploring stuff. However, cinematogs are cool. The shot after the opening credits = sublime. So - nice imagery. Awful story (or I'm missing something).
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WWallce4prez | 85 87th |
The unbelievable landscapes and foreboding darkness serve as more than just a backdrop to Ceylan's immense procedural. If patience allows, one is treated to a wonderful collection of natural conversations and the slow burn of true character development.
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glumpy_99 | 80 60th |
Oddly resembles RESERVOIR DOGS in the way it approaches its dissection of the aftermath of a crime and the various personalities involved, albeit a *very* wound down version. Ceylan knows how to fill a huge canvas with this narrative, with some striking shot choices and moments of interaction (the stray apple sequence is a stunner). Perhaps a little too ostentatiously difficult to connect with properly on a first viewing, but quite bracing as a directorial achievement.
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stevekimes | 85 73rd |
A brilliant slow burn. It is important to stay alert, and the beautiful images helps you do that.
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1 | pzingg | 98 96th |
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Chekov and Brueghel paint a policier.
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1 | donquixotic | 1 3rd |
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Hey do you want to listen to a bunch of policemen spend 20 minutes talking about yogurt? Then have I got the film for you!
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mr oscar | 40 14th |
NBC has talent about cinematography but his stories tells nothing.
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Yiannos | 83 95th |
(Viewed on 13/02/13): If O.U.A.T.I.A qualifies as a police procedural, it's unique in one particular aspect: it stays with the 'body' for almost its entire duration. It's touted as a meditation on truth, but it's more of a moody exploration of the _problem_ of truth(i.e. value and consequence) rather than any genuine epistemological inquiry.While the day scenes aren't as compelling as the night ones, it's a deeply absorbing journey into the dark hearts of men and it's Ceylan's best work to date.
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1 | votefordeniz | 90 97th |
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great film but mysoginistic.
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n.hilal | 100 99th |
Bi zamanlar Anadolu'da dersin ücra bi yerde görev yaparken işte böyle böyle bi gece yaşamıştık dersin.
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Average Percentile 76.79% from 2488 Ratings | ![]() |