Cinema Releases - The Wild Pear Tree

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest film premiered in Cannes 2018 to huge acclaim: “Gentle, humane, beautifully made and magnificently acted movie” (The Guardian) “a lyrical, tremendously acted drama of prodigal fathers and sons” (The Daily Telegraph) “A big, bold masterpiece… his greatest work to date” (Little White Lies).

Sinan returns from his studies in the city of Çanakkale to his parents’ home in the small rural town of Çan. He hopes to publish a book of essays and short stories (or what he describes as a “quirky auto-fiction meta-novel”). But his teacher father Idris is an addictive gambler, so much so that his mother and sister have become reluctantly accustomed to making do without food or electricity. So Sinan, with his writing dreams, worrying that we will be reduced, after army service, to teaching in the remote East, wanders around town, visiting his grandparents, encountering old friends, all the while looking for funding for his book.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is a Turkish film director, photographer, screenwriter and actor born in Istanbul in 1959. After several years of studying electrical engineering, he got interested in photography and cinema. He then travelled to London and Katmandu, and did eighteen months of military service, before studying filmmaking for two years at Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul. He supported himself doing commercial photography. His first short film, Koza, was shown in Cannes in 1995.

His two first features, Kasaba and The Clouds of May were shown in Berlin, but it was Uzak in 2003 that brought him international recognition. Uzak won the Cannes Grand Prix as well as the Best Actor Prize for the two main actors. Each of his subsequent features, Climates (2006, Fipresci Award), Three Monkeys (2008, Best director), Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Grand Jury Prize), successfully premiered in the Cannes official competition.

His previous film, Winter Sleep, was awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

1995 KOZA (COCOON)

Cannes 1995 - 20 min.

1997 KASABA (THE SMALL TOWN)

Berlin 1998

1999 THE CLOUDS OF MAY (MAYIS SIKINTISI)

Berlin 2000 - Competition

2003 UZAK (DISTANT)

Cannes 2003 – Grand Prix and Two Best Actor Prizes

2006 CLIMATES (IKLIMLER)

Cannes 2006 – Competition

2008 THREE MONKEYS (ÜÇ MAYMUN)

Cannes 2008 – Best Director Prize

2011 ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (BIR ZAMANLAR ANADOLU'DA)

Cannes 2011- Grand Prix

2014 WINTER SLEEP

Cannes 2014 - Palme d'Or

2018 THE WILD PEAR TREE

Cannes 2018

“A big, bold masterpiece… his greatest work to date”

David Jenkins, Little White Lies

★★★★★

"A walking, talking wonder...hypnotic and beautiful"

Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times

★★★★

"Beguiling lyricism with biting social observation"

Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent

"A typically rich, wry, melancholic mood-piece."

Geoff Andrew, BFI Online

★★★★★

"Another towering cinematic experience...Ceylan being one of the great masters of slow cinema"

Martyn Conteiro, Cinevue

★★★★

"An epic character study from a genius of world cinema."

Dave Calhoun, Time Out

"The distinctive blend of analytical detachment, wry humour and unsentimental compassion that is his (Ceylan's) creative signature has once more produced a remarkably complex and convincing portrait, both of an individual and a society."

Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound

★★★★★

"Riveting. Extraordinary."

Matt Thrift, Little White Lies

"Ceylan delivers what might be his funniest, most politically poignant work yet."

Bilge Ebiri, The Village Voice

"Do not be deterred by the running time. The staggering emotional payoff - a transcendental moment so beautiful in its simplicity that the previous three hours of seriousness appear to melt away - is worth every last minute"

The Film Stage