Arquivo

Mahmut, an independent photographer, aged 40, abandoned by his wife and in the grips of an existential crisis, begins to feel smothered by frustration brought on by the difference between his ideas and real life. One day, he finds himself obliged to welcome his cousin Yusuf who has left her native village after a local company closed down. She finds her way to Istambul to look for a job on board a ship sailing abroad. The co-existence of both is to be painful to him, a lonely, excentric man with nervous habits, with a sick mother. This drama of an intimate nature, made with few resources, was filmed in the director’s apartment. The actress playing the part of Yusuf is really his cousin, and the actor in the role of Mahmut is a friend, a non-professional actor. Nuri Bilge Ceylan was awarded the prize for best director in Cannes, and actors Muzaffer Ozdemir and Mehmet Emin Toprak shared the award for best male actor.