There may not be many people who, although they know Turkey as a name of a nation, have met someone in person from the country. I have fortunately been able to make some Turkish friends. Because of them, I think I was able to gain my own image about the country of Turkey.

Turkish people have a very favorable opinion of Japanese people. Even a young child who has never actually met a Japanese person is taught by their parents, the media, and the society in general that the Japanese are respectable people. Most Westerners can’t tell Japanese and Chinese people apart, but a Turkish person who has really met a Japanese person says they can immediately tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese people. Japanese people tend to think that Turkish people are Islamic and Arabic in culture, but the country their culture is closest to is actually Greece. I have heard my Turkish friends complain that, “Europeans and Americans respect Greeks as the founders of ancient civilization, but look down on us as savage Muslims.” Most people are Muslim, but Islam does not hold a major role in the lives of the majority of the people in Turkey. Instead, they fear and oppose having the small number of fanatic Muslims gaining power and controlling the government.

Because Turkey shares its border with countries such as Iran, Iraq, and Syria, it wisely tries to maintain a friendly attitude in order to not provoke these countries. However, I think the true desire of the Turkish people is to establish strong relations with Europe and America, and live with Western standards. Turkey and Iran are two of the few countries within the Islam sphere that don’t have Arabic as their first language.

Turkey already economically and politically participates actively as a member of Europe and is classified as part of Europe by the Copenhagen Standard. Turkey government officially thinks of Turkey as a European country, belonging to Europe’s football organization and Olympics committee. Also, Turkey participates in European organizations such as NATO, Council of Europe, Western European Union, South-East European Cooperation Process, Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe; it signed the Declaration of Helsinki and has applied for membership in the European Union (EU). A few years ago, my Turkish friend told me about Turkey’s EU application and that there was very strong wariness about Turkey as an Islamic country among Europeans; he complained about the differential treatment by the EU towards Turkey versus other Eastern European nations that were easily admitted to the EU. Istanbul, along with Tokyo, is one of the finalists being considered to host the 2020 Olympics. This is a great opportunity to show that Turkey is a beautiful and respectable country, but it is unfortunate that the unrest in Turkey’s neighbor Syria may negatively affect the selection. Currently, Turkey who does not accept Syria’s behavior is having a skirmish with Syria at the border between Turkey and Syria. Turkey would have wanted to avoid this.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan who made Three Monkeys represents Turkey as a director and his past works have won awards at the Berlin International Film Festival award and Cannes International Film Festival Grand Prix. In particular, he became an international superstar when he won the Cannes Film Festival Best Director Award for Three Monkeys, but, unfortunately, none of his works have been released in Japan. In addition, even though he is a director in his mid-fifties, he is quite handsome and I think he would become popular with Japanese people if he were to be invited to Japan.

In Three Monkeys, politician Servet, driving home while tired from running his election campaign, accidentally hits a pedestrian and keeps driving. Afraid of a scandal, Servet convinces his driver Eyüp to take the blame for his hit-and-run crime in exchange for a monetary reward, so Eyüp is sent to prison. While Eyüp is in prison, his wife Hacer and Servet develop an intimate relationship. Eyüp’s son notices this love affair and the rough storyline of Three Monkeys is the lives of Hacer and Servet turning towards disaster as their relationship becomes serious.

What I thought was interesting when watching this movie is that it is very passive and subdued. There is no animalistic, aggressive violence commonly seen in Western movies. Even though this movie depicts a family crisis, the characters do not raise their voices, nor do they use violence. Everyone looks sad because they suppress their feelings and don’t express themselves. Also, everyone is unhappy in their own way; their foolish decisions pile up and no one seeks a constructive solution. I am urged to call out to them, “Sad? But you cannot blame anyone but you.” The music of an incoming call on the cell phone also sounds sad. It somehow resembles a Japanese enka ballad. Enka music is said to originate from Korea, but I wonder if its ancient origin might possibly be traced back to Turkey. At any rate, a subdued and sad tone is in the air throughout the movie. This director is very popular with Europe and America because of this sad tone is very unique. Although this feeling is similar to what Westerners feel about Japan, this movie is more gloomy and sad.

Another thing Nuri Bilge Ceylan is renowned for is the beauty of his images. Most of this movie is taken in a poor apartment in a poor area in Istanbul, but the cinematography is terrifyingly beautiful. You cannot understand it without actually watching it. It is really regrettable that it has not been released in Japan.

The story of this movie is not particularly noteworthy and it develops undramatically, but it made me want to see more of director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s works. There is a mysterious charm to this movie.

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Turkish movie director Nuri Bilge Ceylan produced, wrote the screenplays for, and directed the movies Distant and Climates. Ceylan is very well-regarded internationally. Distant (2002) won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, Climates (2006) won the Movie Critics’ Award at Cannes, Three Monkeys (2008) earned Ceylan the best director award at Cannes as well as made the shortlist for America’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Once Upon a Time In Anatolia (2011) once again won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. In addition, Small Town won the Caligari Film Award at the Berlin Film Festival and the Silver Award at the Tokyo Film Festival and Climates won best picture at the SKIP City International Cinema Film Festival in Japan. In other words, nearly all of his works have received prestigious international awards. However, it is curious that none of his works have premiered in theatres in Japan.

The distinguishing feature of Ceylan’s movies in a few words is his cinematography that is so beautiful, it’s terrifying. His cinematography is exhaustively calculated such that each frame in his movies could be a painting. Every moment is perfectly timed and positioned—a bird flying, a fly buzzing, a cat jumping out, a person entering. The color of the clouds, the shading on the mountain, the motion of the sea waves, the color balance of the buildings and roads, the effective use of mirrors, the paint peeling on the exterior of the train, the contrast in the colors of the red mast of a scrapped boat and the snow—all truly astonishing. He pays meticulous attention to lighting. He also delicately uses sound, inserting even noise effectively.

We can understand Ceylan’s obsession over images and sounds if we take a look at his resume. He studied electrical engineering in college and also worked part-time as a photographer to support his living. Before his success in cinema, he had a career as a photographer. He produced, wrote the screenplays for, and directed his own movies, but also supervised photography and sounds and did his own film editing. He is certainly a very technical person.

He also obsesses greatly over the acting. He had several actors perform the single scene of a man simply getting out of a car and talking to someone, ten times each. Even if he reshoots it fifty times, if he is not pleased with it in the end, he might mercilessly cut it out when editing. Snow scenes play a big role in both Distant and Climates. Since snow rarely falls in Istanbul, did he happen to just be lucky? Or did he wait patiently for it to snow?

When directing, he is quite micro-managing. For a seven second scene when the actress opens the door and enters her room, he interrupts for the smallest details that happen in one second—the way she tilts her neck or the way she purses her lips. He has his own clear image and he demands that the actors produce an image that is the same as his. Some actors may think it would be a little hard to work with him or that he is quite strict.

The theme of his movies is “inner world.” He is not a political artist at all, at least from his works that I’ve seen. However, having spent his youth in the 70s, a time of turbulence across the whole world, political disturbance was something that he could not avoid. In 1976, he entered Istanbul Technical University, but in those days, Turkey was in a period of political turbulence and the university didn’t function well; in 1977, the Taksim Square massacre occurred. The facts relating to this event aren’t made very public, but that day was the nation’s Labor Day and it is said that a rally gathering socialists and illegal communists was planned. Istanbul Technical University was the center of student movements and not an environment conducive to studying, so after that, Ceylan took an entrance exam and transferred to Boğaziçi University. He finished his military service and traveled around many places; in his mid-thirties, he decided to become a full-fledged person of the cinema.

When I watch his early works Distant and Climates, I am made to think they might be an autobiography of his inner self. Depicted within these movies is a lonely man who is self-centered and unable to make a commitment to a woman or even himself. Both movies have a protagonist who is a good-looking man with a white-collar job. Women are drawn in by and attracted to such a man, but the man can’t commit to a serious relationship. He has a feeling that there are more interesting things in life than just dedicating himself to one woman so he rejects the woman. However, in the end, the man can’t find something that gives him satisfaction. He regrets parting with the woman, but he doesn’t have the passion to work hard enough to get the woman back.

The loneliness of the protagonist also comes from the loneliness of the people living in the city of Istanbul. Many of the residents living in Istanbul are from rural areas and moved there seeking work. The sense of community of people helping each other in rural areas is lost in a big city like Istanbul, but they are not true city dwellers. The protagonist is a rootless person that wanders about the city.

The loneliness of the protagonist also seems to symbolize the loneliness of Turkey as a country.

The Ottomans, after overthrowing the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century, established their great empire that reached from Azerbaijan in the east to Morocco in the west and from Ukraine in the north to Yemen in the south. However, in the 19th century, signs of decline of the empire began to show and many races in various places ruled by the empire became independent one after another. Because of Turkey’s defeat in World War I and the occupation by countries such as Britain, France, Italy, and Greece, Turkey dissolved. Facing this crisis, patriotic Turks appealed for their nation’s independence and started an armed resistance movement. Under the preeminent leadership of Mustafa Kemel (Atatürk), Turkey was successfully reestablished as the Republic of Turkey in 1922 and the Turks were able to overcome the crisis of extinction.

Turkey chose secularism, separating religion and government, and tried to modernize. After World War II, Turkey, touching the south border of the Soviet Union and in conflict with Russia throughout history, was valued by the west as an anticommunist barrier during the Cold War. Turkey was again valued as a buffer zone between Islamic countries and Western countries when the conflict between America and Islamic countries intensified after the Cold War. Perhaps Turkey wants to be included in European countries. However, an anti-Turkey feeling still remains in Europe, viewing Turkey as a friend to Islam with their anti-Islam eye. From the perspective of Islamic countries, though, Turkey is a country that has abandoned Islam.

There is also conflict within Turkey. The majority of people in Turkey support the stance to separate religion and politics, but there are also many who wish to revive Islam. There are socialists as well as a strong influence from military authorities. It is a country of gentlemen carefully trying to not cause any international problems, but the internal balance is quite delicate.

Ceylan married Ebru Ceylan, an actress much younger than him who co-starred with him in Distant and Climates; they have a child together and Ceylan appears to be a settled family man. Climates is a tribute to his own child, but I assume there was a day of loneliness before he reached his peaceful state of mind. When watching these movies, the feeling that remains in me is a deep loneliness.

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This is the newest film of world-renowned Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. This movie’s plot briefly: there is a murder in Turkey’s capital Ankara; the dead body is left somewhere in Anatolia overnight; and the next day a policeman, a prosecutor, an autopsy surgeon, the murder suspects, and an excavation crew set out to search for the body for evidence.

In this film, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s characteristic non-dramatic plot and beautiful cinematography is pronounced and it does not betray the expectations of fans who love this about his works. However, compared to his previous works, there are more characters in this movie and lots of dialogue in order to describe each person’s character. Although it is not dramatic, the story is stronger compared to previous works and there is an element of mystery solving. While a little bit long, it keeps you captivated and guessing until the end. The movie proceeds at a relaxed tempo so that viewers can understand each person’s character, so I’m actually glad that the movie is as long as it is since each character is quite complicated. Also, very interesting metaphors are effectively inserted at critical points. There is also a long shot where an apple that fell from a tree rolls down a hill and all the way down the stream without the scene being cut. I really wonder how these kinds of scenes are done.

If I were to describe this movie’s distinction briefly I might say that, as rain comes down bit by bit into a pool of water, each raindrop gently creates a few ripples and it resonates with or cancels out another’s ripples forever; each ripple is a different character. After watching the movie, a small stone is gently thrown into the audience’s heart and it ripples forever.

The plot simply put is “went, searched, found,” but there is a multi-layered sentiment contained within this movie. The one that I felt the strongest was the melancholy of “the man who can’t make his woman happy,” and the nihilism.

The young and handsome surgeon is divorced with no children, but the policeman says this is good since it is a crime to raise children in a world with no hope. The policeman’s child has mental problems, which has become a point of tension in his marriage and he is exhausted by his relationship with his wife. The prosecutor talks about an interesting case that he handled as if he doesn’t have any problems in his own life; after an extremely beautiful woman birthed a child, she predicted her death and then she met an unnatural death on that exact day she predicted. However, the surgeon questions whether this death was a suicide. The surgeon calmly says that the human motive for suicide is revenge against someone else. At this point, the viewer can guess that the woman who left behind a 3-month-old baby after her suicide was the prosecutor’s wife. The murder suspect is being arrested for killing his friend; they were having a friendly drink together when the suspect let slip, “Your child is actually my child,” and then the ensuing fight ended with him killing his friend. This child loses his father that raised him to his biological father.

This movie has almost no female characters. The only key female character is the beautiful daughter of the chief of a poor village; the crew looking for the dead body stops and dines at this village. The daughter offers tea with the only light in the scene coming from her candle. Everyone admires her extreme beauty and each recalls the woman they were unable to make happy in their own life, but none of them actually speaks with the daughter. A fly circles around and is attracted to the light from the candle the daughter is carrying. The men say, “Beautiful women have unhappy fates,” and distance themselves from her.

This movie is an extremely clever movie. The audience may actually miss how the murder happened. Also, although depicted as kind and intelligent in the movie, the surgeon makes an unexpected decision at the end. We are left wondering what his intention was and what he feels as he gazes out his window. Was this an act of kindness from a man to a distant woman, and can he show such gentleness to the women in his own life?

Since the riddle and solution are mixed together within the story, this certainly is not a straightforward movie. Whenever I watch movies by this director, I wonder if the sense of emptiness flowing through the bottom of his movies is due to his character or the gloominess of Turkey’s society that has many complicated problems.

Turkey is geographically and culturally between the east and west, between European and Asian culture. Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, is the gate to Eastern culture while Istanbul is the gate to Greek and Western culture. The area is very religious and many are Muslim. This area is the source of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers so a unique culture has developed here since ancient times. Considered a minority, many Kurds reside in this area now. When Turkey faced the crisis of possible disintegration as a nation after their defeat in World War I, Anatolia became the center of a nationalist movement. Therefore, Turkey’s capitol Ankara is in central Anatolia. The Anatolia area is still poor, has a severe subarctic climate, and is very religious, as compared to the picturesque and international and growing economy of Istanbul. I think the director may have a special sentiment toward Anatolia, but it is hard for me to know for sure.

Anatolia is known for the magnificence of world heritage sites like Cappadocia, but the director avoids the scenic jagged rocks and instead strictly captures the leisurely grasslands, looking for areas with winding roads. The movie is like this scenery—a grassy plain undulating forever.

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