“Wanna see a dead body?” pretty much covers the premise, though this is no Stand By Me. The English title of Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da) sounds like an Italian Mafioso film, but it’s Turkish and there are no gangsters. There are, however, cops and robbers (of sorts). The film plays like the opening scene of a Law & Order episode, only stretched out over the course of 2 ½ hours. Anatolia takes place late one night going into the early morning hours, as Commissar Naci (Yilmaz Erdogan), along with the culprits, leads a team through back country roads and dark fields to hunt for a corpse. There isn’t much expository content, more of a character study, as director Nuri Bilge Ceylan methodically meditates over the proceedings. While the tale isn’t told in real time, it’s not that far off from it, as we watch events transpire from multiple perspectives, but mainly three: the law enforcement officer Naci, Prosecutor Nusret (Taner Birsel) and Doctor Cemal (Muhammet Uzuner), who will perform the autopsy.
Based on a real story from the 1980’s, the screenwriter’s friend provided the basis for one of the leads in the film. During a two-day period some of the actors weren’t available for the shoot, the director managed to get an enthralling shot of an apple falling from a tree, rolling down a hill elaborately, before it floats along a stream to a side pool that has caught a few fellow pieces of dead fruit. It’s a memorable moment highlighted by the sparseness of visual content that could have easily been directed by Anton Chekov had he been born years later and decided to go into the movies.
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