Film Alert: 'About Dry Grasses' - Festival de Cine Europeo de Puerto Rico 2023 Review
A Verbose and Immaculate Character Study by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Is Nuri Bilge Ceylan the modern version of Andrei Tarkovsky? This question has seemed to pop up quite often when discussing the Turkish filmmaker’s oeuvre, more so after the release of his 2018 feature, The Wild Pear Tree. Ceylan has commented on Tarkovsky’s work before; his experiences watching Solaris and Mirror have changed from being baffled to naming them some of the best films of all time, specifically the latter, which he has watched more than twenty times. Although plenty of aspects separate these two cinematic maestros, the comparison is quite applicable. The contemplative nature of Ceylan matches with Tarkovsky’s doleful narratives. While Tarkovsky often uses sci-fi and surrealist elements to move forward his stories and create a dreamy and melancholic haze, Ceylan constructs his own with two main ingredients: silence in its atmosphere to cause unease and a verbose screenplay.
The two create lengthy, complex, poetic pictures that remain in your head for days, weeks, and even months after watching them. That’s what unites Ceylan and Tarkovsky – curating melancholy through a beautiful landscape and awe-inspiring technique. And if you weren’t convinced about the comparison yet, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest, About Dry Grasses, will do so, as it is yet another philosophical and immaculate character study that unpacks questions about belief, toxic masculinity, and the fatigue of hoping for a better life. It is a dissertation on many topics told through a dialogue-heavy and demanding procedure we are accustomed to seeing in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s filmography. The Turkish filmmaker creates a web of complex yet beautifully humanistic and elegiac sequences. He is a master director of his class, deserving of every inch of praise given to him.
Here’s an excerpt from my review:
The film centers around Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu), a thirty-year-old art teacher who wants to move from his current position. He’s currently in the small town of Icesu – where everybody knows everybody – and has his mind set on Istanbul, a place he deems would bring him better opportunities. He isn’t in that village by choice; like most of its residents, he is there serving a mandatory service. In his case, Samet is teaching children at a secondary school. He hopes that what comes after his limited stay in the remote town of Eastern Anatolia will be better, as he quotes early on: “From the day I arrived, all I thought about was leaving.” Samet longs for the days when he can freely roam around in a more prominent (and prosperous) place.
At least his work proceeds him, as he’s beloved by everybody. They hold him in high regard even though he states out loud that he doesn’t want to be there. Hence, we see plenty of scenes where he’s passing the time by any means necessary, whether drinking tea and eating cheese pastries or taking photographs of the villagers and plains. There’s a palpable feeling of emptiness oozing from Samet’s core whenever he is by his lonesome or quiet. He isn’t hopeless or completely shattered mentally. But Samet constantly yearns for a better life instead of embracing what’s right in front of him. It keeps him at a distance from his co-workers and the townsfolk. The only people he seems to have faith in are his students, precisely his favorite one, Sevim (Ece Bağcı).
When they are on-screen together, you notice his change of personality. Samet opens up to her about every question she has, sometimes overstepping his boundaries and her privacy, which paves the way for an incident at the school. Sevim accuses Samet and fellow teacher Kenan (Musab Ekici) of inappropriate behavior because he wouldn’t return her love letter, which was confiscated during an inspection. We see him erupting, forging a nihilistic attitude that holds his contempt for Icesu on his shoulders. Celiloğlu creates a multilayered performance in which he balances nihilism and angst with the self-assured persona we saw during the first moments and self-righteousness.
Read my full Festival de Cine Europeo de Puerto Rico review for InSession Film HERE.
About Dry Grasses screened at this year’s Festival de Cine Europeo de Puerto Rico in the Cine Actual section.