Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest film receives standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival
PARIS
Türkiye’s award-winning director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest drama, About Dry Grasses, or Kuru Otlar Ustune, received a long standing ovation after its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The drama focuses on a young teacher who hopes to be appointed to the Turkish metropolis Istanbul after his mandatory assignment at a small village in eastern Türkiye. The film, jointly produced by the Turkish public broadcaster TRT and ARTE France, premiered Friday. The more than three-hour film stars Deniz Celiloglu, Merve Dizdar, Musab Ekici and Ece Bagci.
Ceylan said at a news conference Saturday that the film was shot amid the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and there were difficulties linked to the epidemic.
Noting that the crew traveled a lot to find the right locations to shoot the movie, Ceylan said it was shot in villages around the Karayazi district of eastern Erzurum province.
The Turkish director explained that most scenes were filmed in different villages and then shown as a single place, thanks to editing.
Asked about the characters, Ceylan said: “The feelings of all my characters are feelings that I have experienced within myself. Even if they were just little traces of feeling, not something very strong.”
The auteur also explained that sometimes people find the characters in his movies as “antiheroes.” He said: “That is not the impression I have, however, it depends on the vision you may have personally. I speak about very ordinary feelings which each and every one of us may feel.”
On the “remote” environment, Ceylan said: “For the main character, it was necessary to be somewhere very isolated. Because happiness can be achieved wherever you are. That’s at least what people think.”
“In fact, if you are not happy in life, you always say to yourself you might be happy if you go someplace else. Even people in Istanbul think that they could be happier elsewhere.”
“It’s a way of running away from things. They always think that it’s the place where they live, that’s responsible for their being unhappy, and the character says well, ‘If I’m transferred … things will be fine again.’ He feels very foreign to the world where he lives wherever he is, in fact,” he added.
A total of 19 films were selected to run for the prestigious award Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival which kicked off Tuesday and will run until May 27.
Renowned Turkish filmmaker Yilmaz Guney, whose works often portray working-class people’s lives on the big screen, brought the first Palme d’Or to Türkiye in 1982 with Yol, or The Road. In 2014, Ceylan won the top award for Winter Sleep. In 2009, he served on the main competition jury.
Filmmakers Ken Loach from Britain, Wes Anderson of the US, France’s Catherine Breillat, Germany’s Wim Wenders, Japan’s Kore-eda Hirokazu and Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki are among the directors whose films will be featured at the festival.
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