One of the ideas that Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s cinema most insistently emphasizes is that human and especially men are the worst beings.. In fact, the characters in many of his films are arrogant and incredibly selfish types who openly refuse to admit their misery in public, even though deep down they are sadly one of them. Without further ado, as the protagonist of a new study, ‘About Dry Herbs’, for which he has claimed the Palme d’Or for the seventh time.
Specifically, here, this archetypal anti-hero, modeled after the filmmaker’s reverence for Dostoevsky literature, is a teacher at a small primary school in rural Turkey who dreams of being sent to Istanbul; feels overwhelmed by the traditionalism of the place surrounded by the ignorant. He discovers at the beginning of the movie that he has been accused of misbehaving in class, but that story is quickly put aside; it only serves as a trigger for the character’s spiritual journey, and this Ceylan takes the opportunity to reflect on the importance of active social commitment.our tendency to underestimate gossip—except when it’s about us—the mistakes we make when we believe we deserve more than what we got, and in fact pretty much everything else in this life; The 197-minute film is full of long, intense, and meaty conversations, and none of them are stitched together.
And Ceylan’s extraordinary skill as a narrator once again advances lightly thanks to his flawless handling of the structure. and without ever losing the viewer’s attention, despite its cumbersome shots. In short, it is an overwhelming, monumental work. Ceylan won La Palma in 2014 thanks to ‘Winter Sleep (Winter Dream)’ and it seems that he will win this year as well.