Distant

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

2002 / 110min / 35mm

Winner of the Grand Prix at the 56th Cannes Film Festival, where its two leads, Muzaffer Özdemir and Mehmet Emin Toprak, also shared an acting prize (the latter had been tragically killed in a 2002 car accident), Ceylan’s international breakout is a closely observed, contemplative dual portrait of an odd couple: Mahmut (Özdemir) is an arrogant, depressive photographer recently abandoned by his wife; Yusuf (Toprak), his recently unemployed country bumpkin relation who, while looking for work in the big city, becomes a not-particularly-welcome guest in Mahmut’s minimalist chic Istanbul apartment. The chill in the air of the Turkish metropolis in winter is palpable, here; so too, the lonely ache of these two men so unsuited for companionship, and so in need of it. Heartbreaking.

Distributor: Big World Pictures

Part of The Year Begins in Silence