With many films that have garnered critical acclaim across the span of his thirty year career, Turkish writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan can be considered a contemporary auteur due to his distinctive longform storytelling. About Dry Grasses is his latest effort, an epic drama which centres around art teacher Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu) who is on a placement in a remote village in Eastern Anatolia. After returning to work following the winter break, he is dismayed to learn that students Sevim (Ece Bağcı) and Aylin (Birsen Sürme) have accused him and his colleague Kenan (Musab Ekici) of inappropriate behaviour.
We are first introduced to our main character as a tiny figure in the snow, trudging his way slowly towards the camera. This composition is a trademark of the director, reducing his protagonist to a mere speck within a prolonged take of a vast cinematic landscape. There’s an unhurried rhythm to the narrative that implements repetition and routine, and as we get to know Samet, he remains a mere speck – perhaps not always physically but figuratively in film’s heavy themes of class, society, and abuse of power. He’s obnoxious, arrogant, and mean-spirited in his disdain towards most around him, and some developments may test audience’s patience with him.
Due to the premise, comparisons might be drawn with Thomas Vinterberg’s profound psychological drama The Hunt in which a kindergarten teacher is accused of sexual abuse in a small Danish village. There are strong similarities in the tension and level of uncertainty the plot generates, but this element is used as a dubious springboard into his fascinating character study. Whilst Samet is reeling from the misconduct claims, a bitter love triangle formulates between him, Kenan, and Nuray (Merve Dizdar), a fellow academic who lost her leg to a terrorist attack in a neighbouring town.
Tucked in amongst contemplative scenes of stillness and reflection are extended sequences of intense conversation; most notably, a masterfully written two-hander fuelled by politics, philosophy and existentialism that brings a richness and depth which contextualises what has come before. It’s a riveting and breathtaking passage, finished with a flourish of ingenuity that Ceylan pulls off like a magician teasing the method behind their mind-blowing tricks.
In previous lower-budget films from the filmmaker, amateur actors filled his cast and there are shades of that approach here in the pupils within the school. Newcomer Ece Bağcı is particularly impressive, her bright-eyed youthfulness and sense of mischievous fun appear to symbolise all that has been lost from Samet’s lifestyle since leaving the more culturally vibrant Istanbul to endure a simple, some might say basic existence in Anatolia. Celiloğlu is fantastic in every fraught moment with the girl that is alleged to be one of his class favourites, and he is excellent throughout in a disgruntled role that can be very unlikeable and yet completely compelling. Dizdar is great too; her introduction pulling passion and intellect into the piece not only in her heartfelt portrayal of Nuray but from the side she brings out of Samet as well.
The insightful writing will have viewers in the palm of the film’s hand all the way to a stunning final act where darkness and snow finally clears to reveal scorched grass but no easy answers in Samet’s ambiguous story. At over three hours in length, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses is difficult, challenging, and confronting but poetic and ultimately rewarding. It won’t restore your faith in humanity, but it might just restore your faith in the powerful nature of cinema.
Cinema Perspective 