Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep)

Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep)(Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)

 

In making Winter Sleep, Ceylan developed his style further and his themes and motives go beyond all things that have been implied by his best stylistic strategies. The long takes and the shooting on the locations accompanied with the strong characterizations and the well-written dialogues create an astounding and extraordinary cinematic text. Ceylan now with the help of German and French production units succeeds to open a window in front of us in which the class differences become key element to portray the characters. Simultaneously, Aydin’s paranoia (Haluk Bilginer) towards his wife and his sense of controlling her life with all of his failures make a platform to launch the narrative. Visually and thematically, he brings all his theatrical experiences into his private life. His house looks like a stage with different rooms and corridors. The house as it is mentioned in a dialogue is like a cave with its claustrophobic and imprisoning structure that works like a shelter for the rich characters to refuge from the harshness of the reality outside (cold and snowy weather). The impossibility of breaking the gap between poor and rich people is intensified with Nihal's failure (Melisa Sozen) to donate Aydin's money as a charity to the poor family. It is so sad that she doesn't have any place to go back except Aydin's house. Not surprisingly, the form and the shape of the location and the narrative are circular with no place to flee. However, Ceylan never attempts to resolve the moral structure of the narrative. His complete disbelief in offering any solution at the end of the film makes his whole hypothesis about the denial of social class reconciliation provoking and controversial. We should not forget that there are many cinematic and literary references in the film that are worth to be mentioned such as the hunting scene of the rabbit that reminds us of the hunting scene in Renoir's film, Le Regle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) (1939) with the similar thematic pattern or Bergmanian and Chekhovian dialogues between the male and the female protagonists. Review By Morad Sadeghi