The Wild Pear Tree (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, is one of the most intriguing slow movies I have ever seen. One part My Dinner with Andre, one part meditation, and one part philosophy 101. The Wild Pear Tree chronicles the conversations 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 decides to settle down, which is something he nowhere near ready to do. Since he moves back into home 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, a conflicting argument he comes up against he is forced to grow. Except he doesn't. He’s an over analyser who doesn’t like people in general. When he first comes to town 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 of a character choosing a direction in the fork of the road. There isn’t a representation of the god and the devil in the film as the intricacies all lie somewhere in between.

Sinan’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 Sinan 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. Fears of becoming his father influence his actions. Sinan simultaneously tries to help pay off his father’s debts and get his own book published and printed. Making it harder for him to get away from his hometown. His growth slowly unravels until the end when it comes not in an act but a realisation of his ignorance.

I don't think I have ever related to a character more than Sinan. A man who has finished studying and is now looking for direction in life but risks imitating his father's career. His father is a teacher but has had gambling problems that have amounted to selling his house and crippling debt. In short, he despises him. I don't relate to having a problem with a family member but the nuances of Sinan's worldview and confusions of the modern world I associate with. I understand his confusion of what to do next and fears and understanding of the modern world. Something I think I have only seen in First Reformed over the last year.

The background captures the state of Turkish politics. Sometimes it’s hard to pick up the background TV noise. It’s meant to act as an extension of Sinan or is Sinan a personification of modern day Turkey? He’s a young man who still thinks he makes an impact. It’s 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 has stood by his position and prove 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. Sinan’s or Sinan ’s warped perception of reality? A few of these shots are used in creative fashions. There’s a tracking shot of a dog that ends up jumping in a river. It’s revealed that this is Sinan’s point of view.

I honestly wasn't expecting the editing to be so wild (pun intended). Jump cuts, J and L sound cuts and match cuts are frequent. For someone who has previously shown restraint in technical aspirations, Pear Tree is very whimsical in terms of coverage. Even if you don’t know what the cut consisted of, one can certainly sense that something happened in that moment between the cut. There is no fear of the audience losing track of what’s going on. The rain we hear ends up being what Sinan hears at the start of the next scene for example. The sloppiness may seem unprofessional to most/ Except it the film seems to walk a fine line of realism and formalism because of this. 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 that speeds up to back and forwards as a conversation gets heated. Often he will tie two scenes together by keeping the conversation on the same topic. An easy way to keep your attention for 3 hours.

The film is constructed out of several conversations Sinan has with people around his hometown. The long conversations feel like a 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 Sinan‘s thoughts. About 30 minutes into the film Sinan 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 Sinan’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.

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 to conversations and the grander state of how people feel in the modern world.

I don’t know if it’s the fact this is three hours long and filled with talking or it's in Turkish* but I wish more people were talking about it. There’s a lot to rummage through here and I want to talk to people about it.

Here’s a bonus story for you as well if you read this far.

*I work at the only cinema in Sydney that’s playing this film and I had the following encounter with a customer recently.

Customer: Can I get a refund to this movie?

Me: *checks that film hasn’t been running long* That’s fine. Out of curiosity can I ask why?

C: It has subtitles.

Me: I actually think it’s one of the best films of the year.

C: If I want to see people talk another language I’d walk down the street.

Me: ... ok ...

I walked away from that encounter and said “you racist bastard”

So maybe you should see this film to piss off racists.

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What do you think of The Wild Pear Tree?