Muzaffer Özdemir

The first feature to be written and directed by actor Muzaffer Ozdemir, best known for his
roles in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Small Town, Clouds Of May and Distant (for which he won
the Cannes Best Actor Award) Home (Yurt) is a beautifully composed meditation on
memories and a changing world. Dogan, a pessimistic and neurotic architect, longing for his
homeland, revisits the countryside of his childhood for the first time in many years. His
search for the familiar, however, is an elusive one and in this modern technological age he
quickly discovers that time which once stood still is now fleeting, and that the tranquillity of
familiar landscapes is fading. Poetic and resonant, Home (Yurt) is a serene depiction of one
man’s journey to find his own sense of peace amidst the conflict between nature and the
ever intrusive modern age.Read More »

Quote:
How is it that the same movie can seem tedious on first viewing and absorbing on the second? Why doesn’t it grow even more tedious? In the case of “Distant,” which I first saw at Cannes in 2003, perhaps it helped that I knew what the story offered and what it did not offer, and was able to see it again without expecting what would not come.Read More »

Synopsis:
This is a movie within movie, which is almost recursive, i.e., the movie inside looks like director Ceylan’s previous movie, Kasaba. It is about the movie director, Muzaffer, going back to his hometown to make a movie using a cast of local people. While Muzaffer is around, his mother complains about simple health problems, his father is in a legal fight against the government for his land, his cousin gets out of his job to help Muzaffer who promises him to find a job in Istanbul, and his little cousin Ali tries to carry an egg in his pocket for 40 days so that he’ll get the watch of his dreams. In the meantime, they get to form the cast for Muzaffer’s movie as wellRead More »