The Wild Pear Tree (Sydney Film Festival Review)

"The films that bored me the most in the past become my favourite movies later on. So I don’t care about boring the audience. Sometimes I really want to bore them because out of boredom might come a miracle, maybe days later, maybe years when they see the film again”

This is what director Nuri Bilge Ceylan said following the release of his 2014 film ‘Winter Sleep’. A film I have suddenly become ashamed to have not seen. Why the sudden change of heart? His new film The Wild Pear Tree, his latest film, is one of the most intriguing slow movies I have ever seen. One part My Dinner with Andre, one part Tarkovsky, and one part philosophy 101. The Wild Pear Tree chronicles the conversations of a recent college graduate in Turkey as he tries to get his manuscript published. He’s also trying to work out his identity before he chooses to settle down, which is something he nowhere near ready to do. Since he moves back with his family he has to deal with his Father’s debts accumulated from the horses.

Our protagonist, Sinan is a man whose optimism is slowly dwindling. With every barrier put in his way or every testing, conflicting argument he comes up against he is forced to grow. It’s never clear how specifically he does but he reaches closes to who is going to be. Old ghosts in the form of old friends, including a love interest, show up as Sinan rediscovers the town he grew up in. This isn’t a film with an intricate plot with moving parts. It’s also not one with the common trope that a character but choose a direction at the fork in the road. There isn’t a representation of the god and the devil in the film as the intricacies all lie somewhere in between.

Sanin’s main flaw is that he isn’t able to appreciate people who don’t live or think the way he does. His journey consists of him learning about others and it’s very easy to miss this. It’s layered underneath the subtext as Sanin is a man who doesn’t seem to believe he has any flaws. He would rather deal with errors of others, such as his father’s gambling habits. He fears of becoming his father so he tries to fix his wrongs but those debts start to catch up with him. Making it harder for him to get away from his hometown.

In the background, the film refers to the state of Turkish politics. Sometimes it’s hard to pick up the background TV noise since it's in Turkish. Nonetheless, it’s meant to act as an extension of Sanin or is Sanin a personification of modern day Turkey? He’s a young man who still thinks he can create an impact on society. In his mind, it’s still him vs the rest of the world. He encounters people who are a member of a generation or two before him, sometimes he admires them. When someone has disagreements with him he stands by his position and proves that he’s worth listening to. He seems to lack confidence in this regard. The government backdrop is either telling us that Sinan is a result of it or that the government is going through similar ideological battles as him.

There’s a striking tone in the film that walks a fine line between realism and surrealism. Other reviews that pointed out that some of the technical work in the film appears sloppy. It certainly is noticeable but it never felt “sloppy” to me. The look of the film doesn’t seem to capture the beauty of the Turkish landscape the same way Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (or the bits of Winter Sleep I have seen) does. At moments the film feels like it’s shot with an iPhone but it’s sporadic. Even when it does look like this it seems to come a specific chosen moment. An early example seems to be a dream sequence and after that everytime, I noticed I couldn’t help but question whose reality we’re witnessing. Sanin’s or Sanin’s warped perception of existence?

The editing feels erratic and dense. Jump cuts, J and L sound cuts and match cuts are frequent. For someone who is associated with a more ‘art house’ style, it’s very playful in terms of coverage. Even if you don’t know what the cut consisted of one can certainly sense that something happened in the moment between shots. I would even go as far as to say that the film could be Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s twin peaks. The sloppiness may seem unprofessional to most make the film seems to walk a fine line of realism and formalism. I certainly hope that someone takes on what Ceylan has done here stylistically and expand on it as this could be the start of something new for cinema. There are moments that play out in entire shots and others more conventional coverage and sometimes in between. He’s not afraid to break the flow by cutting in or out on a character.

The film is constructed out of several conversations Sanin has with people around his hometown. The long conversations feel like short film within themselves. They’re never one-note as Ceylan graciously moves from stylistically different moments that make up the scene. The subtle shift in style is often a physical representation of Sanin’s thoughts. About 30 minutes into the film Sanin runs into a girl, who he’s obviously had a past with. The start of the scene is defined by a static shot on the girl and we only see Sanin’s back. Soon they are hiding out of sight behind a tree. Our perspective of the moment changes as we become an observer from above, looking through the trees and it’s slow motion. We feel like either god or the wind watching them.

The conversations between characters are noticeably influenced by philosophy. To my understanding, several philosophers were quoted throughout. I have read who was quoted but when watching the film I couldn’t notice any forced dialogue. It was seamlessly added into conversations. Each idea talked about during a conversation helps build a bigger picture of who Sanin is and indirectly Ceylan. The film itself could be seen as a narrative essay of Ceylan and his regular writing partner Ebru Ceylan (his wife) and Akin Aksu (who also acts). For Aksu this film is autobiographical. This helps lend a personal gravitas to the film. This makes Ceylan take a different approach to apply his concepts through character and plot. I don't know if this film is a big leap for Ceylan's craft but it's certainly refreshing compared to other contemporary films.

The Wild Pear Tree is a sequential exploration of modern-day Turkey, religion, philosophy, morals, and politics. If Ceylan was ever afraid to bore us with this movie he need not worry. It may be three hours but the time goes by with ease. This chamber piece may not give you the rush an Aaron Sorkin one does but this will certainly get your cerebrum going. After the film has finished it will stay with you as you go over it's sweeping yet detailed and universally applicable concepts.

Overall Score: 9/10

What do you think of this film? It will be distributed by Sharmill Films (who did The Square and Foxtrot) in Australia so a release date is inevitable.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Writers: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan & Akin Aksu

Starring: Bennu Yildirimlar, Murat Cemcir & Bennu Yildirimlar

Cinematography: Gökhan Tiryaki

Editing: Nuri Bilge Ceylan