About Dry Grasses

Throughout the film, in which excellent photography and portrait work have a considerable weight, all the faces we encounter in the photographic frames, in a sense, develop the character-oriented theme of the film. We are faced with an extraordinary story with a great scenario, centering on a handful of teachers in a snow-covered village in Anatolia. Nuri Bilge Ceylan portrays the crises of the limited lives of characters who feel stuck in the countryside. It is even possible to call it a trilogy about anti-heroes looking for a better life elsewhere. In fact, we can say that it is a complete Nuri Bilge Ceylan style movie. The long duration that we are familiar with from his previous films, dialogues lasting 20-25 minutes, extraordinary shots, gloom, characters talking sarcastically to each other, and the "realistic tension" created by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, which I believe cannot be achieved through acting. Those who know, know that it's like the moment in No Country for Old Men when Javier Bardem decides not to kill the old employee at the gas station by flipping a coin in the gas station scene. But the most important thing in this scene was that the old man at the gas station had no idea what was going on. It was a great scene that made us tense. In my opinion, the long dialogues between Demet Akbag and Haluk Bilginer in Winter Sleep, Dogu Demirkol and Serkan Keskin in the The Wild Pear Tree, and Deniz Celiloglu and Merve Dizdar on the About Dry Grasses, give the film its real value. Again, as a similarity, the hatred of the sub-characters of the film towards the main character is at the forefront. In Three Monkeys, the son of the house, Ahmet Rifat Sungar's hatred towards his parents, Emirhan Doruktutan, who plays Nejat Isler's son in Winter Sleep, has hatred and grudge towards Haluk Bilginer for humiliating his father, and Ece, who portrays the character of Sevim perfectly, About Dry Grasses. This grudge comes across with Bagci. The result is a thought-provoking and gripping film that delves deep into the human psyche, explores the moral complexities and multifaceted nature of human relationships. It was worth my wait.

I strongly believe that the main story of the film is Samet's longing for a pure and innocent love. And that longing flourish itself on a young, smart and beautiful girl. Samet knows the possibility of experiencing such a love will not come true. I think Samet's interest in Sevim throughout the movie, without resorting to sexuality, is the main subject of the movie. Of course, you may think that the reason for not touching into sexuality is cowardice and taboo. Maybe so. But looking at Samet's immediate rejection of the commander's request to find him a wife, his passing of Nuray to his roommate, and his failure to remember that the ugly Kurdish girl was from his own class, I see that this is not a sexual hunger but an emotional hunger. Of course, we can put on our 'Sigmund Freud' hat and say 'the origin of love is sexual desire'. It would also be true. However, looking at the fact that middle-aged Samet made love with Nuray just to gain superiority over his roommate, I came to the conclusion that he had feelings for Sevim mainly out of emotional motivation, not sexual motivation. He is smart enough not to make a move, but to wait for Sevim to make the first move. Samet, who could not find someone for himself in the big city life and realized that the so-called soul mate is a lie and false dream, throws all his dreams and old disappointments on Sevim's shoulder. He is aware that this is an illusion, and that Sevim will make mistakes and get dirty as she grows up, just like him and other people. However, the hope that he has lost from his peers can find itself in a heart-warming, beautiful smile in a young girl. The fact that he doesn't even remember the name of the ugly Kurdish girl, and the fact that the camera stays on the ugly girl for 0.5 seconds and pans to Sevim in the last scene are short but striking details. Sevim is more beautiful and coquettish than her classmates. I think this made her stand out in Samet's eyes in the monotony of the eastern geography. I also want to criticize the movie, mainly for Nuri Bilge's shallow look at Turkish politics. He always did hide behind safe doors without talking about any of the matters in public. While people getting jailed and kicked out of from their jobs, he remained loyal to Turkish government so he could get funding for his movies. So I am not buying whatever he has to say about Turkish left wing. He can't understand what these people have been thorough. However, his ability to tell the story of middle aged man's love and desire to an under age girl struck me in a certain way. I mean, I never expected this much honesty and risk-taking to come from NBC. The wild pear tree struck me from the beginning to the end with the overall quality of the movie, but this movie hit me from a different place. Even though I wanted to criticize the movie a little more, the thing that remains in my memory most strongly after half an hour of watching it is the fact that NBC is one of the best directors alive today.

I liked the movie very much, all the characters are in shades of grey. No character is an angel, no character is evil. We are watching a slice of real life. We find a piece of ourselves in every character. For example, I was very angry with the director of national education at the beginning of the movie. When the movie was over, I agreed with those bureaucrats. The movie is long so it is difficult to watch it at home. Concentration is required to watch the movie. I think you should definitely watch the movie in the movie theater. Otherwise you will think it's exaggerated. The acting is good, but I don't understand why Merve Dizdar received an award.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan creates another masterful movie with interesting themes that explores the moralities of people and selfishness, great camerawork, strong writing and performances throughout. Ceylan's movies are well-known for being slow cinema and long films but Ceylan's great on capturing the atmosphere of Turkey and his writing really strikes up to it's height. Many of the themes explored within this movie was well-executed, investing, and even with it's long runtime, the narrative never felt boring with each scene and moment being purposeful without wasting any time. The camerawork is amazing. The visual presentation and production is good. Each of the performances from the cast members, including the child actors are amazing as each performance was realistic and raw. The dialogue is outstanding as each of the dialogue between characters, conversations and lines spoken were well-written and each having a purpose to it's setting. Nuri Bilge Ceylan has become one of my favorite Turkish filmmakers as Ceylan has made some really impressive movies in the seasons of Turkish cinema. Overall, I absolutely love this movie.