Uzak

2002 Turkish film

"Distant (film)" redirects here. For the 2024 film, see Distant (2024 film).

Uzak

Film poster

Directed by| Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Written by| Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Produced by| Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Starring|

* Muzaffer Özdemir
* Mehmet Emin Toprak

Cinematography| Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Edited by|

* Ayhan Ergürsel
* Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Production
company

NBC Film

Distributed by| Özen Film [tr]

Release dates

* October 2002 (2002-10) (Antalya)
* 20 December 2002 (2002-12-20) (Turkey)
* 17 May 2003 (2003-05-17) (Cannes)

Running time

| 110 minutes
Country| Turkey
Language| Turkish
Box office| $766,669

Uzak (pronounced [uˈzac], Distant in North America) is a 2002 Turkish drama film written, produced, shot and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

The film won a total of 31 awards at various film festivals, including Best Actor at Cannes, Special Jury Prize at Chicago, and Best Balkan Movie at Sofia International Film Festival.[1] The film was Turkey's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 77th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

## Plot

[edit]

Yusuf, a young factory worker who recently lost his job, travels to Istanbul to stay with Mahmut, one of his relatives, while looking for a job. Mahmut is a rather wealthy and intellectual photographer, whereas Yusuf is almost illiterate, uneducated, and unsophisticated. The two do not get along well. Yusuf assumes that he will easily find work as a sailor but there are no jobs, and he has no sense of direction or energy. Meanwhile, Mahmut, despite his wealth, is aimless too: his job, which consists of photographing tiles, is dull and inartistic; he can barely express emotions towards his ex-wife or his lover. When Yusuf goes to bed during a film, Mahmut switches channels to watch porn the moment he's gone.

Mahmut attempts to bond with Yusuf and recapture his love of art by taking him on a drive to photograph the beautiful Turkish countryside, but the attempt is a failure on both counts. At the end of the film, Yusuf leaves without telling Mahmut, who is left to sit by the docks, watching the ships on his own.

## Cast

[edit]

* Muzaffer Özdemir as Mahmut
* Mehmet Emin Toprak as Yusuf
* Zuhal Gencer as Nazan (credited as Zuhal Gencer Erkaya)
* Nazan Kırılmış as Lover
* Feridun Koç as Janitor
* Fatma Ceylan as Mother

## Production

[edit]

Ceylan made the film with a team of 5 people, and stated that he found the body of a French teacher on the upper floor of the apartment where he lived, thus he was very affected by this incident and included it in the film.[2]

Uzak was the last film that the actor Mehmet Emin Toprak would be involved with, as he died in a car accident soon after filming was completed. He was 28 years old.[3]

## Reception

[edit]

### Critical response

[edit]

Distant has been acclaimed by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87%, based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Hauntingly beautiful, Distant communicates volumes with its almost pervasive silence."[4] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 84 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[5]

Tom Dawson of BBC describes the film as "richly contemplative and languid filmmaking" and added "Few recent films have been so accomplished in capturing the way people drift through their lives, unable to communicate their emotions and feelings."[6] David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor describes it as a "unassuming, acutely observant drama."[7]

### Awards, Nominations and Honours

[edit]

Uzak won 17 awards and 2 nominations, including the Grand Prix and Prix d'interprétation masculine, shared by the two lead actors of the film at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.[8]

In 2019, director Andrew Haigh named it as the best film of the 21st century, praising it as "one of the best about loneliness ever made."[9]

## See also

[edit]

* List of submissions to the 77th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
* List of Turkish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Uzak - Awards". IMDB. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
2. ^ "Nuri Bilge Ceylan: Üst katımdaki öğretmenin cesedini bulduğumda çok etkilendim" [Nuri Bilge Ceylan: I was very affected when I found the body of the teacher upstairs]. Hürriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 3 November 2020.
3. ^ Gibbons, Fiachra (2004-05-06). "Death in Yenice". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
4. ^ "Uzak (Distant)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
5. ^ "Distant". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
6. ^ Uzak (Distant) (2004). BBC
7. ^ David Sterritt (2004-03-12). "Movie Guide: New Releases". The Christian Science Monitor.
8. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Uzak". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
9. ^ "The directors' cut: film-makers choose the best movies of the century so far". The Guardian. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 18 September 2019.

## External links

[edit]

* Uzak at IMDb
* Uzak at Rotten Tomatoes
* Uzak at Box Office Mojo
* Review of Distant at Blogcritics
* Uzak: A film review

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

* Kasaba (1997)
* Clouds of May (1999)
* Uzak (2002)
* Climates (2006)
* Three Monkeys (2008)
* Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
* Winter Sleep (2014)
* The Wild Pear Tree (2018)
* About Dry Grasses (2023)

* v
* t
* e

Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix

1967–2000|

* Accident / I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967)
* Ådalen 31 (1969)
* Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
* Johnny Got His Gun / Taking Off (1971)
* Solaris (1972)
* The Mother and the Whore (1973)
* Arabian Nights (1974)
* The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1975)
* Cría Cuervos / The Marquise of O (1976)
* Bye Bye Monkey / The Shout (1978)
* Siberiade (1979)
* My American Uncle (1980)
* Light Years Away (1981)
* The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)
* Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
* Diary for My Children (1984)
* Birdy (1985)
* The Sacrifice (1986)
* Repentance (1987)
* A World Apart (1988)
* Cinema Paradiso / Too Beautiful for You (1989)
* The Sting of Death / Tilaï (1990)
* La Belle Noiseuse (1991)
* The Stolen Children (1992)
* Faraway, So Close! (1993)
* Burnt by the Sun / To Live (1994)
* Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
* Breaking the Waves (1996)
* The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
* Life Is Beautiful (1998)
* Humanité (1999)
* Devils on the Doorstep (2000)

2001–present|

* The Piano Teacher (2001)
* The Man Without a Past (2002)
* Uzak (2003)
* Oldboy (2004)
* Broken Flowers (2005)
* Flanders (2006)
* The Mourning Forest (2007)
* Gomorrah (2008)
* A Prophet (2009)
* Of Gods and Men (2010)
* The Kid with a Bike / Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
* Reality (2012)
* Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
* The Wonders (2014)
* Son of Saul (2015)
* It's Only the End of the World (2016)
* BPM (Beats per Minute) (2017)
* BlacKkKlansman (2018)
* Atlantics (2019)
* Compartment No. 6 / A Hero (2021)
* Close / Stars at Noon (2022)
* The Zone of Interest (2023)
* All We Imagine as Light (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Golden Orange Award for Best Film

* Birds of Exile (1964)
* Love and Grudge (1965)
* Bozuk Düzen (1966)
* Zalimler (1967)
* İnce Cumali (1968)
* Bir Çirkin Adam (1970)
* Ankara Express (1971)
* Zulüm (1972)
* Hayat mı Bu (1973)
* The Wedding (1974)
* Anxiety (1975)
* Deli Yusuf (1976)
* The Dark-Veiled Bride (1977)
* The Mine (1978)
* Railroad / Yusuf and Kenan (1979)
* The Herd (1980)
* Not Awarded (1981)
* Ugly But in Love (1982)
* Faize Hücum (1983)
* A Sip of Love (1984)
* Dul Bir Kadın (1985)
* Aaahh Belinda (1986)
* Mr. Muhsin (1987)
* Gece Yolculuğu (1988)
* Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite (1989)
* Women's Ward (1990)
* The Secret Face (1991)
* Cazibe Hanımın Gündüz Düşleri (1992)
* The Blue Exile (1993)
* Lobster Pot (1994)
* The Cockroach (1995)
* Somersault in a Coffin (1996)
* Hamam (1997)
* The Wound (1998)
* Mrs. Salkım's Diamonds (1999)
* The Raindrop (2000)
* Big Man, Little Love (2001)
* Distant (2002)
* The Encounter (2003)
* Toss-Up (2004)
* Derivative (2005)
* Destiny (2006)
* Egg (2007)
* The Market: A Tale of Trade (2008)
* Cosmos / Bornova Bornova (2009)
* Majority (2010)
* Good Days to Come (2011)
* Güzelliğin On Par’ Etmez (2012)
* Cennetten Kovulmak & Kusursuzlar (2013)
* Kuzu (2014)
* Sarmaşık (2015)
* Mavi Bisiklet (2016)
* Melekler Beyaz Giyer (2017)
* 3 Faces (2018)
* Bozkır (2019)

* v
* t
* e

Turkish submissions for Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

2001–2020|

* Big Man, Little Love (2001)
* 9 (2002)
* Uzak (2003)
* Lovelorn (2005)
* Ice Cream, I Scream (2006)
* Takva: A Man's Fear of God (2007)
* Three Monkeys (2008)
* I Saw the Sun (2009)
* Honey (2010)
* Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
* Where the Fire Burns (2012)
* The Butterfly's Dream (2013)
* Winter Sleep (2014)
* Sivas (2015)
* Cold of Kalandar (2016)
* Ayla: The Daughter of War (2017)
* The Wild Pear Tree (2018)
* Commitment (2019)
* Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2020)

2021–present|

* Commitment Hasan (2021)
* Kerr (2022)
* About Dry Grasses (2023)
* Life (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Film

* Black Republic (1991)
* Life on a String (1992)
* Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring (1993)
* Seopyeonje (1994)
* Vive l'amour (1995)
* Cardiogram (1996)
* Gabbeh (1997)
* Children of Heaven (1998)
* The Hole (1999)
* Darkness and Light (2000)
* Eureka (2001)
* Batang West Side (2002)
* The Best of Times (2003)
* Uzak (2004)
* Underexposure (2005)
* It's Only Talk (2006)
* Opera Jawa (2007)
* Slingshot (2008)
* Laila’s Birthday (2009)
* Sex Volunteer (2010)
* Buddha Mountain (2011)
* Court (2014)
* The Fourth Direction (2015)
* White Sun (2016)
* Disappearance (2017)
* A Land Imagined (2018)
* Scales (2019)
* Milestone (2020)
* Hit the Road (2021)
* Autobiography (2022)
* Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023)
* Mongrel (2024)

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* Israel

Other|

* IdRef

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