Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

A murder suspect leads a search party through the Anatolian steppe at night, trying to remember where he buried the body. The group includes a police commissioner, a prosecutor, a doctor, drivers and diggers, and as the cars move from one hill to the next without success, the men argue among themselves and the trail of what actually happened gradually emerges. The night's journey, punctuated by an unexpected stop in a village, gives way to morning and to the formalities that follow the discovery of the body.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan directed and co-wrote the film with Ercan Kesal and Ebru Ceylan. It sits between Climates and Winter Sleep in his filmography, his fifth feature. The cast is led by Muhammet Uzuner as the doctor, Yılmaz Erdoğan as the commissioner, Taner Birsel as the prosecutor, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan as the driver and Fırat Tanış as the suspect, with Ercan Kesal as the village headman among a credited cast of 26. It is a Turkish production, made with Bosnian partners, and runs 163 minutes.

The film drew strong critical attention, earning 8.2 out of 10 from 79 reviews, while audiences on TMDB rate it 7.5 out of 10 from 562 votes. The narrower gap between the two suggests a work that satisfied both critics and viewers.