Past beyond its duration, the film grows darker and more intense as it moves forward. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Oct 4, 2022

As the title suggests, Ceylan's new film unfolds like a good book. What seems a police procedural on the surface, Anatolia is a deeply felt human drama that is rich and nuanced as any great Russian novel.

| Feb 28, 2021

As meditative as it is methodical, stunningly photographed, and as existentially provocative as anything Albert Camus ever wrote.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2020

An opaque but excellent film, if you can give yourself the mental shot in the arm that may be required as the film begins its lengthy wrapping up process, you will be witness to an excellent piece of artistic cinema.

| Feb 13, 2020

Each new discovery is as pleasurable and as thought provoking as the last, adding up to a deeply resonant cinematic experience that continues to grow in estimation upon further reflection.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 6, 2019

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia was one of the highlights of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it took home the Grand Prix.

| Mar 18, 2019

Those that can embrace its patient, visually-enthralling style and sparse, yet affecting dialogue will be rewarded with a film of grand ambition, delving deep into the human condition and questioning our very moral fabric.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 19, 2018

A profoundly beautiful film that revels in the lyrical and the mundane, and suggests that art does transcend the futility of existence.

| Aug 30, 2018

To watch this film requires some patience, but it's an excellent examination of people in a high stress situation.

| Aug 23, 2018

While Gkhan Tiryaki's cinematography is phenomenal, the film is, at its best, a wasted opportunity.

| Oct 7, 2015

Ceylan's own growing reputation will, I hope, continue to grow. He uses the realistic film as an avenue to what lies around and beyond the realism.

| Jun 19, 2013

Uma obra encantadora e hipntica.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 16, 2013

This is a very slow-moving movie, but it also has its attractions, such as its beautiful cinematography by Gkhan Tiryaki, particularly the wide angle shots showing the vastness of the Turkish landscape.

| Original Score: C+ | Dec 23, 2012

The literal "once upon a time" of a series of disillusioned men who no longer think about the future because they obsess over the past.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 21, 2012

It's a masterpiece crime story that tells us as much about searching for the truth in modern Turkey as it does about violent criminals and those who prosecute them.

| Original Score: A+ | Jul 14, 2012

You can't expect a slow burn drama to payoff spectacularly unless it burns slowly, and this is precisely what Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan orchestrates in this masterful murder-mystery.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 10, 2012

It's a unique film that is best enjoyed knowing very little about it - so go and take a look

| Jun 30, 2012

Mesmerising cinema... This is a film that deserves your attention. It may be slow and the plot points obtuse, but the rewards are great

| Jun 30, 2012

It runs 157 minutes, and I can't say you don't feel them. You do - but in the way you would, reading a very good book in an uncomfortable chair.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 16, 2012

... while quiet in tone, is rich in its character studies...

| Original Score: A | May 11, 2012