Naci!

I’m not happy with young Master Lewis this week. Apparently he’s ‘too sexy’ (on holiday) to write the review of this week’s podcast, so he’s left the job to muggins here.

Now you know me dear listener/reader, I don’t mind pulling my weight when it comes to the podcast, but unfortunately I found this week’s film, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, a bit… dull. Not fantastic, not terrible, not funny, not scary, not weird, not anything really. Just boring. And that makes it very difficult to write anything interesting about it, hence my blatant padding here! Lewis though loved it, making his absence this week even more galling!

The film follows over the course of one night the investigation of a murder; a man has apparently been killed and buried in the wilderness by his two brothers. A slightly ragtag group of the investigating police officers, the prosecutor, a doctor, some grave diggers and the suspects spend the night driving around the Turkish countryside looking for the victim’s body.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia though isn’t concerned with the murder, instead its a character piece, taking its time to focus on each of the main characters and their particular point of view.

With some genuinely interesting character moments, some gorgeous shots and an interesting look at present day Turkey the film definitely will appeal to many; as I said Lewis really liked it. For me though the film is strictly 3 stars. [Don’t you mean 5 stars? – Lewis]  It’s just far too slow, clocking in at 2 and a half hours. That’s a long time to invest in a 3 star film. Still, the fact that I disagree with Lewis at least makes a good podcast!

Our Secret Sponsor for this week is Bride of Crapula, yet another blog about films. There’s hundreds of them! At least these guys have got a funny name. You can check out their amusing (though wrong) review of Zardoz at brideofcrapula.com. Follow them on Twitter @brideofcrapula.

If our review has piqued your interest in the film, you can buy the Once Upon a Time in Anatolia DVD from Amazon by clicking here (and we get a little bit of cash if you do – thanks in advance).

Anyway, without further ado, let us present our feature presentation:

Click here to download and listen on your MP3 player of choice:

101 Films Podcast 58 – Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

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We’d love to hear your own film recommendations – please get in touch at 101filmsyoushouldhaveseen@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog. Feel free to say nice things about us on iTunes!

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan  Year of release: 2011  Studio/Distributor: Zeyno Film, Cinema Guild  Country: Turkey