The Wild Pear Tree

In The Wild Pear Tree, Nuri Bilge Ceylan continues the poetics that brought him the Palme d'Or in 2014 for Winter Sleep. At the heart of the film is once again a screenplay filled with details and long conversations, which Ceylan stages with reverence worthy of the "Turkish Chekhov." The protagonist in The Wild Pear Tree is a teaching graduate named Sinan (Aydin Doğu Demirkol), who, before his final exams, returns to his native Çan in northwest Turkey. Like a visitor from a big city, he looks upon the provincial society that he left behind years earlier with a combination of aversion and tolerance. Life in Çan gradually engages him more and more, however, and his dreams of success-and of becoming a writer-turn out to be difficult to achieve. In the saturated colors of the changing seasons (especially the red and gold of autumn), this film portrait of a multigeneration family is permeated with nightmarish visions and philosophical disputes about the Quran. Though seemingly minimalistic, The Wild Pear Tree is a substantial film about rebellious youth that has to come to terms with the legacy of its forefathers.