Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
By Alex Watson
Winner of the Palme D'or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep is a movie that although stretches the patience of film goers with its 196 minute running time, also touches base with the realities and problems within relationships that few have thread on before. The leisurely pace of the film shows Ceylan is in no hurry to let his drama play out and those who stay are richly rewarded with a emotional and hard hearted piece.
In the Steepes mountains, former stage actor Aylin (Haluk Bilginer) now runs the Hotel Othello and is hoping to one day write a book about Turkish Theatre. But aside from his status as a local celebrity and weekly column he writes, tensions are beginning to rise within the walls of his home with wife Nihal (Melisa Sozen) and acidic tongued sister Necia (Demet Akbag). As winter approaches, the heat of conflict arises and Aylin is left to ponder what might be?
From the very outset in Winter Sleep, there is a sense of conflict that is hinted at, early on we see an angry young boy of drunken lout Ishmail (Nejat İşler) smash the window of his car. Although he acts reasonably, violence so nearly escalates. Aylin appears to view himself as the wise, caring and well loved ruler of the realm. As he denotes "My kingdom may be small, but at least I'm the King." But there is an undeniable arrogance and opinionated element to his character which alienates him from almost everyone in the valley. The way he speaks to Nihal about how he is certain her fund raising efforts will fail is like hearing a parent speaking down to a child.
There is also cursory manner in how he treats the apparent suffering around him, everyone in the region seems to have good reason to hate him. A brooding hatred is slow drip fed to us as we learn of the variety of reasons for animosity. But Aylin appears oblivious to all around him and amidst the beautifully shot rocky mountain landscape, he has confined himself to the walls to his study and his own sense of superiority. Ceylin however, never once plays the sympathy card for this and allows us to witness first hand the ripples in the water this one man causes.
Conversation between family members in Winter Sleep are the perhaps overly long, but through these to looming sense of family conflict brings the film alive. The talks on show vary from the family matters, to ones of religious population to even politics. Through these however, the problematic reality of life and the complications that arise are both poignant and hard hitting. One fire side talk between Nihal and Aylin lays the issues of their dissolving relationship bare and the pair of them both shatter each others hearts with one well timed swing after the next.
As Aylin, Haluk Bilginer is never less than engaging as the smug and misanthropic hotel owner. Hiding his true feelings under a wall of supposed intellect and quiet chastisement, Aylin is a man who has all but ruined any possible meaningful relationship appears not to understand precisely why. But as Ceylin's movie progresses, Bilginer skillfully gives his character more of a conscious air that just might push him towards self awareness. Top support is also given by a radiant Melisa Sozen as determined Nihal, a beautiful young woman who has been stripped of a life and still attempting to find meaning in the midst of the wreckage.
Debate will always ensue about whether Winter Sleep was a worthy winner of the Palme D'or or merely an overly long family argument? Either way it is an absorbing and magnificently photographed piece that firmly captures the needed bitterness of Aylin's fortress.
