A subtle study into the complexities of human nature, taking inspiration from the short stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. Winner of the 2014 Palme d’Or Award at Cannes.
Aydin, a former actor, runs a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal with whom he has a stormy relationship and his sister Necla who is suffering from her recent divorce. In winter, as the snow begins to fall, the hotel turns into a shelter but also an inescapable place that fuels their animosities.
»The problem with Hollywood is the audience expects to get the answers like a pill. They expect to know not just whodunit, but the motives of the characters, the how and why. Real life is not like that. Even our closest friend – we don't know what he really thinks. In films we want more than in real life, everything being made clear. That means this kind of cinema is a lie. I cannot make cinema that way.«
- Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Born in 1959 in Istanbul, Nuri Bilge Ceylan is considered one of the greatest European cinema revelations of the late 1990s. Distant won the Grand Prix at Cannes. The following three films also did not go unnoticed at the Cannes FF: Climates won the FIPRESCI Prize, Three Monkeys the Palme d’Or for Best Director, and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia the Grand Prix. In 2014, Winter Sleep has finally earned the director the coveted Palme d’Or Award.