Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Synopsis: In the rural area around the Anatolian town of Keskin, the local prosecutor, police commissar, and doctor lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is proving more difficult than expected as Kenan is fuzzy as to the body's exact location. As the group continues looking, its members can't help but chat among themselves about both trivia and their deepest concerns in an investigation that is proving more trying than any of them expected.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Director(s): Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Production: The Cinema Guild
  19 wins & 26 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.8
Metacritic:
82
Rotten Tomatoes:
92%
NOT RATED
Year:
2011
157 min
$138,730
Website
1,246 Views


ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA

Izzet, bring him over.

Is it here?

Huh?

- No.

- What?

- It's not here.

- You sure?

How do you know it's not here?

- The place wasn't like this.

- What?

The place wasn't like this.

There was a field.

What sort of field?

On a slope or flat?

Flat. There was like a round tree.

A round tree?

Chief, does he mean

the fountain down beside Kizilkaya?

Oh, the one by whatsitsname...

- There's a field there?

- Sure.

- So you're saying it's not here.

- No.

OK. Take him away, Izzet.

Mr. Prosecutor, seems there's

another fountain like this down below.

He says it's not here,

so I'd guess it's there.

- So it's not here either.

- No. That's what he says.

Fine. Let's go then.

- We call it 'kmus' where I come from.

- Whatever. So one night...

It's late. Everyone's tanked up.

- You listening, doctor?

- Of course, chief.

So we're all drunk

and the tax officer walks off.

I think, he's an ass-licker.

He'll come back with something.

Soon as he sees a big wig,

he gets to work.

- That's Nedim.

- Who?

- The tax officer at the time.

- No, it was Sinasi.

Nedim came before him.

Oh, yes. He'd throw back

his head to talk. Fat and bald.

Around two months

after Mr. Galip arrived...

...he got posted somewhere else.

Well, he goes off with the waiters.

And they come back with three trays.

- See a tray and what do you think?

- Kebabs.

You'd think kebabs. Meat.

But no! It's yoghurt.

What kind of yoghurt?

Not the soupy kind we know.

It's hard as rock.

- You need a knife to cut the stuff.

- Sure it wasn't cheese, chief?

Cheese?

You think I don't know yoghurt

from cheese, doctor?

What do you take me for?

That stuffs delicious, doctor.

Especially in spring.

No, it was yoghurt.

But buffalo yoghurt.

Not sheep or whatever,

buffalo yoghurt.

They have buffalo stuff at the dairy

down from our quarters.

- Where is there a dairy?

- Down from our quarters, sir.

Which quarters are you in?

What dairy?

You know that dairy

below our quarters?

- By Kivircik's place?

- Yes, sir.

They sometimes make it there.

- That stuffs pasteurized!

- No, it's buffalo. I've tried it.

- It kind of smelled.

- It smells if it's good.

Buffalo yoghurt... Wouldn't I know

if they had it at the corner shop?

- I'm crazy about the stuff.

- To be honest, chief, you don't know.

I tried it.

But it just seemed to smell a bit.

Because it's good. The animals eat

fresh grass in spring, right, doctor?

Arab, some people have no taste

for the good things.

I mention buffalo yoghurt

and the guy says it smells.

He doesn't know the real thing.

What's he used to?

Pasteurized. You can get

pasteurized from any shop.

No, chief. My deceased mother

used to make it.

They can't make it like that now.

You know, I see stuff sometimes

that really bugs me.

In the supermarket. 'Skimmed' yoghurt.

What the hell is that?

'Skimmed' yoghurt.

You'd be ashamed to write the words.

There's a good dollop

of cream in buffalo yoghurt.

Nedim was in Mr. Galip's time.

That's the guy.

- He was a good man.

- And nice.

Nice, meaning harmless.

Harmless passes for nice these days.

Useful doesn't come into it, Arab.

OK, where is it then?

Well...

Huh?

Well, umm...

Kenan!

- Speak to me! Where is it?

- I don't know.

- I mean, I'd been drinking.

- What?

- I'd been drinking.

- Huh?

You'd been drinking.

- You'd been drinking?

- Yes.

- Had your brother been drinking too?

- He doesn't drink.

So you don't remember exactly?

Say something.

Say there was a tree, anything!

Was it up by the fountain

or below the road? Say something!

Ramazan.

Come over here, lad.

Can you show me, lad?

Where it was then?

Huh? Where was it?

Ramazan, don't be scared now.

Just say where it was.

I don't know.

You don't know?

You don't know

or you don't remember?

- I was asleep.

- What do you mean?

Answer me, lad!

- I was asleep.

- Huh?

I was asleep.

You were asleep.

Kenan.

Just get your head together

and let's be done with this, huh?

Is this the place?

- I think so.

- You think so?

Over by that fountain, if we...

- Over here?

- Yes.

Your tree... The trees are down below.

Or was the tree by the fountain?

It's dark now.

I need to look.

Sergeant, point those headlights

this way.

Mehmet, turn the car round

to face the fountain.

Izzet, bring him over.

Is this the place?

Well...

Yes?

It looks like here, but those trees...

- Which trees?

- On a diagonal with those trees...

- Yes?

- There was a dug-up field.

- You mean ploughed?

- Yes.

Come here. Look, this is ploughed.

You mean here?

Huh?

Diggers! Over here!

Check for any newly dug holes.

Quick!

Where exactly in the field?

Right by the entrance, or what?

- Huh?

- There was a round tree.

What kind of tree?

I say that

because it was easy to dig.

You say there was a round tree.

What do you mean?

Did you dig under the tree?

Kenan, now look here.

Are you trying to distract me?

It won't get you anywhere.

Whatever we talked about

at the police station, that's it.

You come out here

and you lose your head.

I'm treating you decently.

So be a man and show me the place.

Huh?

Where is it?

Is it here?

Hey, is it here?

Mr. Prosecutor, he says

this isn't the place either.

Naci. Didn't you say to me

everything was all set?

Yes, Mr. Prosecutor, but... They'd been

drinking that night. And the darkness...

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Ercan Kesal

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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