Popular reviews

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  Review by hava ★★★★★ 4

  stalker'ı kapatıp porno açmak

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  Review by Larry ★★★★½ 8

  Uzak is about distance.

  The distance between rich and poor

  The distance between the literate and the illiterate

  The distance between the ones in the city and the ones in the village.

  The distance between thought and words.

  The distance between past and present.

  It's a distance that keeps us prisoner in our solitary shell.

  A distance we can either learn from or suffer in silence

  A haunting, unhurried exploration of loneliness, sadness and disconnect, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's paralysingly beautiful Uzak is a potent exploration of the human condition and it's affinity towards an even more human solitude. With his signature slow-burn presentation, beautiful cinematography and sparse dialogue, Ceylan crafts a portrait of people stuck in existence, a profound yet…

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  Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★½ 3

  Something about the ending of this movie is almost mystical.
  Certainly one of the very best films I've watched all year.
  Now I seriously can't wait to see Winter Sleep.
  Tarkovsky would be proud.

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  Review by Dragonknight ★★★★½ 5

  ”Everywhere ends up being the same place.”

  Uzak, director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s first major critical success, includes thematic elements which make it immensely appealing to the Turkish viewer but it also addresses universal themes – the painful “virtue” of loneliness and the never-ending melancholy of a broken up relationship – which take it above a simple exotic movie and turn in it into something that can easily – well, not that easily of course – draw the attention of a wider global audience.

  Ceylan’s filmmaking method is such that it often needs a fully composed and generously patient viewer who can tolerate the static mise-en-scenes of the film and its sequences of raw and unpolished emotions, that is how the…

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  Review by enes ★★★★½

  soğuk bir film.. hava soğuk, insanlar soğuk, ilişkiler soğuk.. her şey anlamsız ve birbirinden uzak..
  taşradan istanbula gelmiş ve kendine bir hayat edinmeye çalışan yusuf ile kötü bir evlilik geçirmiş ve yalnızlığında boğulan mahmut karakterlerinin hayatına ve aralarındaki ilişkiye konuk oluyoruz.
  yusuf saf bir karakter, köyünden yeni çıkmış çoğu şeyden habersiz..
  mahmut ise çirkin ve kötü birine dönüşmüş ama onu böyle biri yapan da hayatın ta kendisi.
  ikisi de bir o kadar yalnız ve çaresizken birbirlerine sahip olmanın değerini bile bilemiyorlar.
  garibim yusufun her hareketi uyuz bir insana dönüşmüş mahmuta batmaya ve ayrılmalarına yol açıyor..
  karakterlerin düşünceleri, karamsarlıkları, yalnızlıkları ve çaresizlikleri o kadar iyi aktarılıyor ki izleyiciye ikisinin de uzaklara dalıp uzun uzun baktıkları sahnelerde adeta onların kafasından geçirdikleri şeyleri…

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  Review by Edgar Cochran ✝️ ★★★★★ 2

  One year before Andrei Zvyagintsev amazed audiences visually in 2003, Uzak restored faith in Turkish cinema in the fact that new heights could be reached. What we are witnessing here is a melancholic masterpiece. Distance is not only physical; unfortunately, personal distance will determine how much we allow circumstances to shape our relationships. Great reflection for modernity.

  97/100

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  Review by nick ★★★★½

  Uzak is a poetic, microscopic look at the lives of two Turkish cousins, whose polar opposite personalities cause them to clash constantly in their Istanbul home, while deep down they are tormented by the same worldly human conditions. In a snowy Istanbul, sorrow runs deep, despite director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's masterful efforts to hold every ounce of emotions in.

  Touching on many topics, such as economic depression, different walks of life, and the meaning of life, Uzak is extremely philosophical in tone, on top of its largely subtle delivery, saves for several scenes depicting the comical, relatable tensions between those two cousins that warrant a solid laugh and offer human touch to this other wise almost untouchable experience. The acting…

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  Review by Rod Sedgwick ★★★★½ 2

  ''My film not only talks about the lives of several characters, but about life in a big city as well. City-dwellers try to organise their lives in a way that they don't have to count on anyone but themselves, and end up building their own prison cell. We don't ask anything of anyone, nor do we give anything either. Solidarity is a much more rural trait. It is somewhat of a necessity out in the country.''
  - NURI BILGE CEYLAN - on UZAK

  Oh the bridges that could be crossed and the distances that could be closed, if only men would open up and express their feelings. Nuri Bilge Ceylan evidently pours his soul onto celluloid with Uzak and the result is a confident, measured and languid lament for the down and detached. Ceylan's contemplative cinema speaks to me, because sometimes I feel just like Mahmut...

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  Review by Michael James ★★★★

  Nuri Bilge Ceylan portrays an absorbing, visually beautiful melancholic drama. The story follows Yusuf, a young factory worker who lost his job in his village and travels to Istanbul to stay with his relative Mahmut. Though he is successful with his life as a photographer, Mahmut is self absorbed having his own problems, bored professionally and unsatisfied personally. With work prospects looking slim, Yusuf hangs around snow-covered Istanbul, wiling away his days and more or less stalking women he takes interest on.

  The movie is dominated by silence, but they are the most dramatically impactful ones. Ceylan has several beautiful compositions at an unhurried pace set to perfection. The visual humor is sublimely funny, especially the scene where Mahmut watches…

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  Review by Kristi Sejdi ★★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  That despised cigarette in the final scene must have tasted like heaven. He might have felt the real distance (uzak), finally at peace with himself, with his empty soul and his lost inspiration, not pretending to be an intellectual, or as if he enjoys Tarkovsky movies as we saw some sequences of Stalker and The mirror. On that bench, in the wind, in front of the sea...he has accepted his own soul full of flaws.

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  Review by Hasan ★★★★

  ''...Taşradan gelmişsiniz, işiniz gücünüz torpil aramak. Bir vasıf filan bulmak diye bir derdiniz yok. Amcaydı, dayıydı, bakandı, milletvekiliydi cart curt. Her şeyi hazır bulmaya çalışıyorsunuz.''

  Yusuf desen taşradan şehire gelmiş alışamıyor , Mahmut desen şehir hayatı ruhunun içine etmiş. Mahmut'la Yusuf birbiriyle dertleşse , birbirine arka çıksa belki de birbirlerinin dertlerini sökecekler ruhlarından ama kendi dertlerinden dertleşmeye vakit bulamıyorlar.
  Nuri Bilge Ceylan'ı bu filmde diyalogla değil de soğuk sinematografisiyle karşımıza çıkmış. İyi ki de çıkmış. Bir zamanlar anadolu'yu daha çok beğensem de bu film de en az 4lük bence. Klasik taşralıyla şehirli eleştirisini de esirgememiş kralım.

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  Review by chavel ★★★½ 2

  There’s the cinema of agony and the cinema of ecstasy. The Turkish film Distant i.e. "Uzak," is the cinema of agony, but it is a quiet agony. And yeah, I’ve grown wary in recent years of art films on self-imposed martyrs, but if you’re looking for pieces on winter despair there are less interesting ways to pick your cinematic poison than by choosing this.

  This is the story of the relatively distinguished but solitary Mahmut (Muzaffer Ozdemir) and his visiting cousin Yousef (Mehmet Emin Toprak). Mahmet is a longtime photographer who lives off of only a few monthly assignments and stays relevant by attending an occasional social gathering with colleagues. His wife is divorcing him and moving with her new…