Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

For fans of Ceylan, this film is definitely recommended: it is long, slow, very well shot, and has some commendable scenes and themes. Yet, of Ceylan's four films: Distant, Climates, Three Monkeys, and this movie, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is merely good. Though parts of Three Monkeys are flawed (esp. during the first half), it's a strong film. And Distant is likely still the finest of the lot. I don't find this movie to be that much of a departure for Ceylan. Finally, as with all of his movies, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia requires repeat viewings to truly appreciate its depth and richness. ***Spoilers*** Is it me or did the guy playing the dead guy move his fingers a bit at one point? I could swear that his thumb or index finger twitched after they pulled him up from his shallow grave.

The worst episode of Tom & Jerry would be much better to enjoy than this "much-wasting-time & strongly-drawning-eyes-to-sleep" movie. If you want to waste your valuable 150 minutes in life, still anyhow, you'd better look at a painting than seeing this movie. You don't need any spoiler for this review, because the film has spoiled many things in vain. Move on, and just find a better movie to enjoy.

the most thing i like in any movie is it's story and the conflict between it's characters.Conflict is present and shows the qualities of each character, but unfortunately the story is very weak and not interesting at all.even if any excitement is present elongation and stretching of the scenes make it boring more and more,some scenes may be of no value and no need for its existence. May be one reason for boredom in the movie is the emergence of the problem in it's beginning which is a murder then you will spend more that hour and half watching a very traditional boring search done by group of men in countryside. Even there is no soundtracks or songs in it. but actors were good and i said actors because if u see casting you can't find except one actress that appear in only one scene. finally it was boring longer than it should be don't watch it

The film is slow but, Each and every character is well made, well described and beautifully portrayed. And i think that justify the film's lenght. If you want to watch something rather different from other police films I highly recommend it.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is one of the most popular Turkish director and we can say "Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da" is his mastership periods work. Ceylan, because of his photographer background, usually prefers visual expression to verbal one but in "Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da" we can see the successful examples of both expression methods. Ceylan's use of the images success clearly stand out in "Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da". In "Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da" Ceylan tells a story of resemblance that occurs as a result of town life. All of the acting are excellent but I want to emphasize Fırat Tanış's(suspect of murder) performance, his performance is so reel and impressive. Either scenario or acting or images are excellent.

In the countryside in Anatolia, Turkey, officials search for the place where a confessed murderer has buried his victim. The search is difficult and the lives of the officials are revealed in private conversations. The film is directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan who did a superb job in the film "Distant" ten years before. He uses the same approach in the "Anatolia" film which includes long takes which might seem mundane but are more often fascinating as interesting details are revealed in the subtlety. The current film doesn't fully justify its length (over two and a half hours) and the decision of a major character at the end seems odd. However, there is much compassion given to all characters who have had difficult pasts while simultaneously making the body search intense. The uniqueness of the style makes the film worth seeing even if this is not to all tastes. - dbamateurcritic

I usually search and watch movies that get high ratings on IMDb, simply because it's a trustworthy source of information about movies. When I saw 8,5 rating on this movie I said "Hey, I NEED to watch this!" and rushed to it! Now, I gotta say, I've never slept watching a movie before. EVER. I'm a film lover... and this movie made me sleep. I think that the high ratings are from people who think that if they give a high rate to a "not common" movie, it means that they are cult and intelligent. They are wrong. This movie is defined by one word: BORING. Maybe, if I didn't see the ratings and had no expectations on this movie, I would give it a 4 or a 5. But I had high expectations and because of that, this movie disappointed me. One word: Boring. One (my) rating: 1.

Nothing happening here except bit of empathy, professional skills, nature, and realistic story. But nothing interesting, unusual, extreme, of to look forward for. Just ordinary murder, crime, investigation. Even all episodes of CSI TV series are more interesting. I wanted to watch this because I thought it is about Bosnia, but looks like has nothing to do with Bosnia, just Turkish film. Even Taken 2 which happens in Turkey although hollywood is much better, in fact perfect compared to this. Looks like we need more english movie, and less foreign.