#taner birsel

“You’re not human!”

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest film, Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, is nothing if not arduous: a glacially paced, 150 minute police procedural? Certainly not for everyone. But, if you can stick with it, Ceylan’s film is one of genuine depth and complexity – if not for the entirety of its bloated run time.

The film follows a group of bumbling police officers, and two murder suspects, as they search for the missing body of a murder victim in the Turkish countryside.

At its best, Once Upon A Time In Anatolia is a fascinating insight behind the professional curtain of flawed men. They struggle with frustration as their search continues into the night, while Ceylan introduces elements of dark, droll humour (“You look like Clark Gable”) to make the characters more relatable and, importantly, more human. The aforementioned “Clark Gable” scene is the film’s finest moment.

The only real problem is that the film could certainly benefit from a trim – there are a few scenes that could be shorter, particularly the excruciatingly long final act. That this is the only real issue in an otherwise compelling and unusual character study says a lot for the film’s quality, but it’s unfortunately enough to hold it back from the greatness it hints at.