Distant

2002 [TURKISH]

Action / Comedy / Drama

24
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 82% · 46 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 82% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.5/10 10 24500 24.5K

photographer recession loneliness unemployment

Plot summary

A young man from rural Turkey arrives in Istanbul with dreams working on a ship and stays with a cousin while he searches for work. Over time, the former’s struggles to find employment and the latter’s troubles and disappointments strain their relationship and living situation.

720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1006.47 MB
1280*694
Turkish 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 49 min
Seeds 5
2.02 GB
1920*1040
Turkish 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 49 min
Seeds 13

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by gurdeep-hamilton 7 / 10

Chilly number from Istanbul!

Reviewed by tomgillespie2002 8 / 10

Fantastic commentary on social and emotional distance

Mahmut (Muzaffer Ozdemir) is a successful photographer living in his middle-class apartment in Istanbul. His wife has recently left him, and he is suffering from feelings of isolation and loneliness. Mahmut's cousin Yusuf (Emin Toprak) loses his factory job (along with possibly 1000 others in his hometown) and travels to Istanbul to find work on the ships, where he hears the money is plentiful and easy. Yusuf moves in with Mahmut, and the social and emotional distance between the two is immediately apparent. As time goes by, Yusuf struggles to find work and desperately searches for love (or sex) to no avail, while Mahmut becomes increasingly frustrated with Yusuf's slobbish attitudes and lethargic attitude.Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's background is in photography, leading to a natural progression into films. His eye for photographic beauty is evident as Uzak is often astonishing in it's framing and colour saturation. Istanbul is shot with an aura of misery, and these two lonely souls gaze out to the grey sea with the rain and drizzle falling upon their slumped shoulders. However, amongst the greys and the browns, Uzak proves to be an extremely funny film, with Ceylan drawing humour from the most mundane of everyday occurrences. I found the most subtly funny scene is where Mahmut and Yusuf watch Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979), with Yusuf getting bored at what looks like around the twenty minute point. Yusuf leaves, and Mahmut quickly puts a porn video in. Yusuf re- enters causing Mahmut to quickly turn the channel over, only for Yusuf to linger over his shoulder mindlessly staring at the TV. It brilliantly captures the increasing tension between the two, while laughing at their ridiculous situation.The title Uzak translates at Distant, referring to the social, emotional and spiritual distance between the two, but it also refers to the global distance that is appearing in society as the world gets smaller. Communication is easier yet harder. Although Mahmut and Yusuf are physically and geographically together, they are miles apart. Mahmut is sophisticated and clean (or at least he likes to think of himself like this and models himself on Tarkovsky, but as the aforementioned scene proves, he'd much rather watch a bit of porn) and Yusuf is uneducated and messy. Mahmut has sacrificed personal happiness to live out his idyllic middle-class lifestyle, and Yusuf lazes around expecting a job and money to come to him, leading him to live out his miserable, sexually inactive life. Uzak is occasionally grim and contains little dialogue, but Ceylan's amazing eye for humour and social commentary make it a wonderful experience. And special mention must go to the two leads, who are brilliant in their roles, making it all the more tragic that Emin Toprak was killed shortly after the filming was complete.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com
Reviewed by deepakahlu 8 / 10

What happens when a recently divorced man withdraws from the world

You discover solitariness, but not quite... Measured and majestic in its observation Ceylan has a camera in-built in his brain masterfully capturing moods against raw landscapes just as much as dark TV lit rooms, a foray into the chill of the heart…. It moves leisurely, yes, but never do you take your eyes off the screen or want to fast forward.. This film could so easily have been dark and forgetful, or grinding art-house, instead it is is uplifted by the incandescent sense of cinema in it — the grace and fluidity with which relationships play out, their cinematic element meant to pleasure our sensibilities against vast canvases..Ceylan is a serious player today, with Winter Sleep winning the Palme d'Or in 2014 at Cannes…...this 2002 work shows why….
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