Once Upon A Time In Anatolia: Press reviews

'Ceylan has forged a new template for the police procedural.'

'It could change your life'

'it is a kind of masterpiece: audacious, uncompromising and possessed of a mysterious grandeur in its wintry pessimism'

'It could go on for another two-and-a-half hours and you'd still be sitting there, mesmerised'

At Cannes: 'lengthy, rigorous and masterly'

'[A] compelling, masterly journey'

'Complex and sophisticated, this genre-defying crime story is spellbinding viewing.'

'This is the best controlled film of this major director — even one of the best films of the past year.'

At Cannes: 'a visually mesmerising piece of work whose quiet, apparently placid, uneventful surface, covers a myriad of themes'

'an enigmatic, flawlessly shot police drama.'

At Cannes: 'For those willing to take the plunge, it is a deep and haunting work that lingers in the memory'

'...Nuri Bilge Ceylan's rural crime drama is so engrossing, and proceeds with such a powerful sense of purpose, that there isn't a shot or a line in it that you wouldn't want to be there.'

' As a character casually observes early on, we might remember this seemingly insignificant evening later in life as an anecdote that begins: "Once upon a time in Anatolia..."'

'As in life, the less that happens, the quicker time seems to pass.'

'Closer in metaphysical spirit to Kiarostami than to Leone, it lingers thanks to beautifully lit widescreen images of lived-in faces and barren, beautiful landscapes.'

At Cannes: 'Beautifully crafted, ultra-rarefied pic won't expand the audience for the Turkish auteur's work, though festgoers will again appreciate Ceylan's marvelous eye and surprising reserves of humor.'

'The dead haunt "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia," but so does beauty.'