“Man was made to be happy for simple reasons and unhappy for even simpler ones – just as he is born for simple reasons and dies for even simpler ones... Isa and Bahar are two lonely figures dragged through the ever-changing climate of their inner selves in pursuit of a happiness that no longer belongs to them. “ [Nuri Bilge Ceylan]
CLIMATES (Iklimler, 2006) is the fourth feature film of Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who was born in 1959 in Istanbul. After studying electrical engineering at Bogazici (Bosphorus) University, Ceylan began his career as a photographer. Today he is perceived as one of the leading auteur directors in Turkish cinema. Apart from Yilmaz Guney (1937-1984), Ceylan has come to be known as one of the most respected directors from Turkey in the international cinema realm.
Since the beginning of modern filmmaking in 1920s, only a handful of directors operated in Turkey. The economic and social climate was not ripe for widespread filmmaking until the 1960s. During this time the annual number of films released reached 80. From then on the film production numbers were to increase from 209 in 1967 to 300 films in 1972. Yesilcam Cinema movement, named for Yesilcam Street in Istanbul, in which many of the producers had their offices, began to model Hollywood filmmaking. The filmmakers exploited emotions and religious beliefs while promoting the star system to attract audiences.
The first important film in Turkish film history was Metin Erksan’s BEYOND THE NIGHTS (Gecelerin Otesi 1960). Erksan earned a reputation as the first representative of Turkish art-house cinema. The first director known to foreign audiences is the above-mentioned Yilmaz Guney whose works featured cases of fugitives, women and rebellion taken from his personal experiences in the countryside of Anatolia and the shantytowns of big cities. THE HOPE, (Umut 1970) is one of the most important works in his filmography. With the collapse of the Yesilcam system in the 1980s, which was highly dependent on producers’ financial backing, a new era was introduced for the directors in Turkey. Additionally, the expansion of television within everyday life, cinema became less attractive in the 1980s. Annually film production has been decreasing; in 1988 only 17 films were shot. There were 33 in 1991 and 35 in 1995. On the one hand Turkish films were competing with the American action movies which had wide appeal; and on the other hand Turkish filmmakers began to make movies about the inner lives of individuals which have seemed less attractive to the audiences.
A new crop of films, characterized by Yavuz Turguls’ BANDIT (Eskiya) in 1996, have elicited high interest from the domestic audience and created a new era emphasizing a higher quality of independent filmmaking. Also bolstered by the works of filmmakers of Turkish origin living in Western Europe, such as Ferzan Ozpetek (born 1959) of Italy and Fatih Akin (born 1973) of Germany; this new era in Turkish film is bright. Examples include Akin’s HEAD-ON (Gegen die Wand, Duvara Karsi, 2004) chronicling the trails and tribulations of Turks living in Germany or Ozpetek’s HAMAM in 1997, a travelogue of an Italian going to Istanbul.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan also represents this stream as a new, independent Turkish director who has won recent critical acclaim. He is known as an auteur director because of his reflection of a personal vision within a distinctive style and consistent theme. Admittedly what makes Ceylan an auteur director is the destiny obsession in his stories for each character, his gloomy sky scenes, and a less exaggerated acting style with limited dialogue. His use of silence permits him to focus on actor’s gestures and expressions. The style, story and camera work of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s films are unique in terms of their originality, deliberate narration and plain sense of meaning. He writes his own screenplays which are mainly related to lack of communication, the relation between people and nature, and the naked reality found within everyday life. Therefore it is not surprising that Ceylan’s style is said to be similar to Bergman, Antonioni and Tarkovsky.
After shooting his first short film COCOON (Koza) which had its world premiere in the Short Film Competition of 48th Cannes International Film Festival in May 1995, Ceylan made his first feature film THE SMALL TOWN (Kasaba) in 1998. Starring Ceylan’s own cousin, Mehmet Emin Toprak, and his real-life parents Mehmet Emin and Fatma Ceylan, THE SMALL TOWN tells the story of children living in a small Turkish village. The film, with its extraordinarily beautiful scenes and unexaggerated acting, captured a distinctive status among Turkish and foreign film critics.
Ceylan’s next film CLOUDS OF MAY (May?s S?k?nt?s?, 1999), which was devoted to Russian author Chekhov, tells the story of a director who returns to his native town to make a movie. The film has autobiographical traces from Ceylan’s own life which he experienced during the shooting of COCOON. CLOUDS OF MAY evolves around the stories of each character: Emin, again played by Ceylan’s father, who strives to protect his small forest from authorities, Ali, who dreams about a musical watch, and Saffet, who wishes to leave the town and go to Istanbul. The film won acclaim at the Istanbul Film Festival in 2000 and won the Golden Tulip Best Film Award. It later captured several awards in the international film festivals throughout the world.
The third feature film of Ceylan DISTANT (Uzak, 2002) focused on the loneliness and alienation of individuals within their silent and desperate worlds. In the words of the director DISTANT was telling the story of “lives of my friends, my own past, observations and feelings which come together and then are forgotten”. Accompanied by the wonderful winter scenery of Istanbul, the film does just that without assertive and pretentious dialogue. Similar to the previous works, this film’s cast was from Ceylan’s own family and friends. Two of them, Mehmet Emin Toprak, who died after the film in a car accident, and Muzaffer Özdemir, won the Best Actor Award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
From the beginning of his filmmaking career Ceylan chose a different path apart from the popular, conventional cinema culture. At sixteen years old, he watched Bergman’s THE SILENCE (1963) and said that after the film he felt like he had just woken up from a dream. Ceylan realized the extraordinary artistry in film and continued this passion as he later discovered Tarkovsky, Ozu and Bresson.
Instead of transforming life into a story, Nuri Bilge Ceylan prefers to give the poetic sides of life, and to reflect reality within the film itself. As noted by Ceylan, he generally wants to emphasize “the eventless, with nothing much happening, real life” in his works. He forces the audience to be more patient and smart. That is why he avoids increasing the speed of film or using technical tricks. In his words these tricks cause “the audience to begin to be very lazy and forget to make connection with the mode and style. Even the film critics tend to have similar criteria with the audience -- ’not to get bored’, ‘just to enjoy.’ These two criteria do not make me feel well. The only thing that today’s films follow is to not to bore the audience. Spiritualism has been forgotten.” Ceylan believes in the existence of smart audiences who can easily capture the dishonesty and mistakes in the films.
CLIMATES, starring the director-writer himself, Nuri Bilge Ceylan as Isa, and his real-life wife Ebru Ceylan as Isa’s girlfriend, Bahar, chronicles their rocky relationship. Ebru Ceylan was born in 1976 in Ankara and studied film in Marmara University in Istanbul. Afterwards she made her first short feature film ON THE COAST (Kiyida) in 1998. Later on she was the art director of DISTANT and played a role with the other members of the family in the film.
Shot in three different climates –summer, autumn, winter- as well as in three different cities –Antalya, Istanbul, Agr?- CLIMATES presents the humanistic story with stunning camerawork and amazing acting. In the film, as in Ceylan’s other works, the characters are lead to their destinies through their lack of communication, trust and love. Isa’s selfishness and inability to communicate with Bahar leads him to confront their destiny.
This film portrays the selfishness and rooted alienation of the main characters from one another. Each character displays feelings of boldness and hope until the ultimate destiny makes itself visible. However throughout the film Isa and Bahar are restless in the land of loneliness.
--Ozde Celiktemel, Austin Film Society Member and History Graduate, Bosphorus University, Istanbul, Turkey
Sources:
• Rekin Teksoy, 2005: Rekin Teksoy’un Sinema Tarihi, Istanbul: Oglak Yayinlari.
• Asli Daldal 2003: “Kracauer, Basit Anlat? ve Nuri Bilge Ceylan Sinemas?”, in: Do?u Bat? Dergisi, No: 25, Kas?m, Aral?k, Ocak 2003-2004.
• Nuri Bilge Ceyland website
• Internet Movie Database
• Sinema Turk [in Turkish]
