About Dry Grasses

Samet is an art teacher finishing a mandatory posting at a village school in a remote part of Anatolia. He has spent years hoping for a transfer to Istanbul, and when accusations of inappropriate contact with a pupil are made against him and a colleague, that prospect slips away and he sinks deeper into an existential crisis. A fellow teacher, Nuray, becomes a presence in his life as he struggles to find a way forward.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan directed and produced the film, his seventh feature, following The Wild Pear Tree. He wrote the screenplay with Ebru Ceylan and Akın Aksu. Deniz Celiloğlu plays Samet, with Merve Dizdar as Nuray, Musab Ekici as Kenan, Ece Bağcı as Sevim, Erdem Şenocak as Tolga and Yüksel Aksu as Vahit. It is a German, Turkish, French and Swedish co-production and runs 197 minutes.

Released in July 2023, the drama was made for about 4 million dollars and took roughly 2 million dollars worldwide, a modest return. Audiences rate it 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb from around 19,000 votes and 7.7 out of 10 on TMDB from far fewer votes, while a critics' rating of 8.4 out of 10 from 74 reviews places it somewhat higher with reviewers than with the general public.