Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

A group of police officers led by Commissioner Naci searches the steppes of Anatolia for a hidden corpse. The suspect confesses to the murder but can’t remember where he buried the body. The story is loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s short story The Examiner.

Ceylan draws the viewer into a long — two and a half hour — journey through the Anatolian night, offering a road movie disguised as a detective story disguised as a thriller, which ultimately turns out to be all and none of the above. Each character the investigator encounters along the way clings not only to their secrets but also to personal fixations that demand either understanding — or at the very least, attention.

 After the film, we'll brew some tea and share our impressions. The discussion will be led by a philosopher-cinephile (and the cinema's owner) Varya Vlasova.