Unspoken Cinema

"New Turkish Cinema embraces minimalist audio-visual elements, with long takes, contemplative narratives, and a mediated film experience that invites slow engagement and introspection. Through a focused comparison of Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Zeki Demirkubuz, two of the most influential and internationally recognized figures in this movement, this article examines how their distinct directorial styles articulate the aesthetics of slowness. Both emerged in the 1990s as central figures in the post-Yeşilçam cinematic landscape, yet their approaches differ markedly. Ceylan’s films employ rural landscapes, subdued rhythms, and interior stillness, while Demirkubuz crafts existential narratives in confined urban settings through stark realism and elliptical storytelling. Despite their stylistic differences, both directors adopt techniques associated with global slow cinema. This article argues that slowness in New Turkish Cinema functions not merely as a matter of pacing, but as a cinematic ...

"[..] For proponents of the slow-cinema idea, an action should take just as long as it needs; a car approaching from a long distance in a broad landscape doesn’t have to appear in front of the camera in close-up within two seconds (see Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, for example). Carrying out domestic chores can be filmed in real time; cooking a potato takes place according to the laws of physics, not those of cinematography (as in, for example, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman). [..]" Thijs Havens (Eye Filmmuseum; Netherlands) Special screening programme (part of the Nuri Bilge Ceylan retrospective, Inner Landscape , 18 Jan-1 Jun 2025): Koza (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey 1995, 20') Prologús (Béla Tarr, Hungary 2004, 5')  La chambre (Chantal Akerman, Belgium 1972, 11') Szél (Marcell Iványi, Hungary 1996, 6')  The Night (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan 2021, 19')

Repetition of Archetypes in Slow Cinema from Can Baran on Vimeo . (5 January 2022) 5' In this video essay reflections, repetitions, and references of archetypes in the movies of Andrei Tarkovsky, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and Bela Tarr is presented. This video essay was made for Bilkent University COMD - 321 Analysis of Moving Image, and it is only for educational purposes. Made for nonprofit. Movies: Andrei Rublev(1966) by Andrei Tarkovsky Ivan’s Childhood(1962) by Andrei Tarkovsky Once Upon A Time In Anatolia(2011) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan Turin Horse(2011) by Bela Tarr The Wild Pear Tree(2018) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan Winter Sleep(2014) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan   See also at Unspoken Cinema : CCC Videographic Criticism

Masterclass by Nuri Bilge Ceylan at ParisCinema festival (7-4-2009) with his co-writer and actor, Ercan Kesal, and Libération journalist, Marc Semo. Introduction : he makes films with a small (familial) crew, an autobiographical work also on the modern face of Turkey. There he corrects the autobiographical claim. The subjects are close to him, the characters contain a lot of himself, on a profound level, but this is all fiction, and the superficial stories are not the portrait of his own life events. Since Three Monkeys , he writes his scenarios with the collaboration of his wife, Ebru Ceylan, and his friend Ercan Kesal, who is a doctor in real life, and also plays a non-actor in his last film. He say he prefers to work with co-writers, because the collective discussion helps to solve problems much faster. Testing out whether an idea will work out or not can be sorted out in 5 minutes, while it would take a week by himself. Chekhov, the Russian writer who strives to understand manki...