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Distant (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:44
Fresh:39
Rotten:5
Average Rating:7.8/10
Consensus: Hauntingly beautiful, Distant communicates volumes with its almost pervasive silence.
Theatrical Release:28-05-2004
Synopsis: Nuri Bilge Ceylan's DISTANT chronicles the numbing loneliness, longing, and isolation in the lives of two men who are consumed by their own problems. Istanbul photographer Mahmut (Muzaffer Ozdemir)... Nuri Bilge Ceylan's DISTANT chronicles the numbing loneliness, longing, and isolation in the lives of two men who are consumed by their own problems. Istanbul photographer Mahmut (Muzaffer Ozdemir) reluctantly receives his relative Yusuf (Mehmet Emin Toprak), but the mingling of their lives does little to alleviate their detachment. Mahmut's ex-wife is moving and Mahmut cannot deal with the residue of his feelings for her, and later, he must care for his ill mother. Yusuf unsuccessfully looks for work on a ship in hopes of seeing the world and having money left over for his family, but ends up wandering the city, failing to find the connection and inclusion he seems to desire. Despite a superficial effort by Mahmut to help by offering Yusuf a job on a photo shoot, their already distant relationship devolves into little more than sharing the same space, as neither can find a way to communicate at a deeper level. Ceylan uses his significant cinematic talents to great effect with long, meditative shots that emphasize a mood of alienation and stagnancy. Wintry Istanbul becomes its own character, as its foreboding weather and stark industrial areas create a physical distance among the characters. Imbued with pathos, this film provides a complex character study that speaks to the need for human connection. Ceylan's cast is comprised of his relatives and friends, all nonprofessional actors, who turn in refined performances. DISTANT won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003. [More]
Starring: Muzaffer Ozdemir, Mehmet Emin Toprak, Zuhal Gencer Erkaya, Nazan Kirilmis
Starring: Muzaffer Ozdemir, Mehmet Emin Toprak, Zuhal Gencer Erkaya, Nazan Kirilmis, Feridun Koc, Fatma Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Screenwriter: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Producer: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Studio: New Yorker Films
Reviews for Distant
Few recent films have been so accomplished in capturing the way people drift through their lives, unable to communicate their emotions and feelings.
This precisely paced, sensitively performed drama speaks volumes about the growing distance that modern urban living is putting between people who would otherwise have so much in common.
The film is virtually wordless as we watch the characters dealing with each other.... There's a gentle but sharp humour at work here.
The tale has a deceptive, emotional complexity that builds to a surprisingly heartrending impact.
He'd love to mimic Antonioni and Ozu, but Ceylan still has much to learn about crafting quiet scenes
Deeply compassionate and frequently amusing, qualifying as a minor miracle of humanely observant filmmaking.
A startlingly quiet film that is buoyed by a droll humor, splendid visuals and bittersweet reflections into the human condition.
The film's extraordinary shifts from windswept sorrow ... to deadpan comedy ... are uniquely, triumphantly their maker's own.
Ultimately, it becomes a movie about the feeling of being alive, the sensation of existence. It's a movie, in a way, about everything.
Straightforward, droll, brutally honest and arresting, if somewhat stately in progress.
For arthouse fans this should be a must - filled as it is with lingering shots, awkward silences and the growing weight of knowing that no character will end up smiling.
Films that insist on long periods of nothingness need to earn those periods.
The cumulative force of so many quiet, unforced little moments add up, and it wasn’t until a good hour after I’d seen the film that it really took hold of me.
There is no simple sense of uplift in Distant. But there is an exhilaration to revealing the human condition, and Ceylan is ever on the lookout.
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