Written by Ebru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast: Yavuz Bingöl, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rıfat Sungar, Ercan Kesal, Cafer Köse, Gürkan Aydın
35mm / 2008 / 109 min.
In Turkish with English subtitles
SYNOPSIS
A family dislocated when small failings blow up into extravagant lies battles against the odds to stay together by covering up the truth... In order to avoid hardship and responsibilities that would otherwise be impossible to endure, the family chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it. But does playing “Three Monkeys” invalidate the truth of its existence?
SELECTED FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
Cannes Film Festival, France (2008): Best Director
Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival, India (2008): Best Director
“Manaki Brothers” Film Camera Festival, Macedonia (2008): Special Award of Mosfilm (Cinematograpy: Gökhan Tiryaki); Special Mention (Cinematography: Gökhan Tiryaki)
Haifa Film Festival, Israel (2008): Golden Anchor Award for Best Film
Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Australia (2008): Best Director
SIYAD Turkish Critics’ Awards, Turkey (2009): Best Director; Best Editing; Best Actress (Hatice Aslan); Best Supporting Actor (Ahmet Rıfat Sungar)
Director NURI BILGE CEYLAN
Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul in 1959. He graduated from Bosphorus University with a degree in Engineering. He started to develop an interest in photography at the age of 15 and he started to be involved in filmmaking when he was about 22 years old. After graduating from Bosphorus University, he studied filmmaking for two years in Mimar Sinan University.
Ceylan made his cinema debut with a low-budget but a high-impact short film, Cocoon (Koza, 1995), officially selected for the 48th Cannes International Film Festival. His first feature film, The Small Town (Kasaba, 1997) brought him 18 international awards, including Caligari Prize at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. Clouds of May (Mayıs Sıkıntısı, 1999) had its world premiere in the 50th Berlin Film Festival in 2000 and won awards at many international competitions. Ceylan’s Distant (Uzak, 2003) was named as one of the best films of the decade by the Guardian. Distant also received the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actor Award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Success of these films were followed by Climates (İklimler, 2006), winning the FIPRESCI Movie Critics’ Award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and received international praise by critics and experts.
His most recent film, “Three Monkeys”, brought Ceylan the Best Director Award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
In his films Nuri Bilge Ceylan usually deals with real human life and characters, existentialism and human alienation. Having started his career as a photographer, he generally makes minimalist movies and his cast consists of amateur actors, mostly members of his family, including his mother and father. An exception to this is “Three Monkeys” which has a cast of professional actors. Compared to Abbas Kiarostami, Robert Bresson and Alan Resnais, Nuri Bilge Ceylan is described as a true auteur.
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Boston Turkish Film FestivalSM and Boston Turkish Music FestivalSM are registered service marks of the Boston Turkish Film Festival and the Boston Turkish Music Festival respectively.
