Thursday, 21 August 2014

Uzak (Distant) (2002)


☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Uzak (Distant) (2002) – N. B. Ceylan

A meditation of sorts on the distances that people allow to come between them – or that they put there on purpose.  Mahmut is a successful commercial photographer in Istanbul who is visited by his “country cousin” recently out-of-work due to a factory closing in their hometown.  Age and class differences now separate them but Mahmut is also in a funk due to his recent divorce from his wife (who still contacts him despite being remarried and about to move to Canada).  The distance between men and women (although the latter are far and few between) might also be a subtheme here. Yusuf, the cousin, is also unable to find work – his dreams and goals are similarly distant. Ceylan shoots the wintry landscapes and harbor with a sharp eye for stillness and the various hues of grey and blue.  His work wins awards though this is a quiet not grandstanding film.



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