Esteemed readers,
I’m a film buff, a cinephile, a natural-born film critic whose career began in the User Reviews section of the Internet Movie Database, aged thirteen. (My first reviews concerned the ‘genius’ of Stanley Kubrick and a group of other cis white Western filmmakers.) Thirty years later, I present to you my review of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses in the January 2024 issue of Artforum.
I’m happy to report that the critique of scoundrels, louts, creeps —whatever you call toxic men— has become a focal point of my writing in the past years. Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s gaslighter hero Samet is such a douche that I had to put that quality in the first paragraph of my review. For a more extended analysis of Ceylan’s cinema, see my Los Angeles Review of Books portrait here.
In December, my good old friend Olkan Özyurt (we shared a desk for many years as culture reporters) published an excerpt from Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s new book, Winter Sleep that revealed some friction between Ceylan and another Turkish auteur, Zeki Demirkubuz.
Ceylan’s book comprises a synopsis and the script of Winter Sleep, a number of essays written on it (see a Believer piece I wrote a decade ago), several interviews with Ceylan and cast members, and… a diary Ceylan kept during the filming of his masterpiece, which won the Palme d’Or.
In the excerpt Olkan has unearthed, Ceylan complains about Demirkubuz’s insinuations that his 2008 film, Three Monkeys, was based on a project Demirkubuz worked but later abandoned. Demirkubuz says he never watched Three Monkeys; a friend, who knew about his abandoned project, told him that Ceylan’s film was a rip off.
In late December, Demirkubuz gave a film-length interview on HaberTürk and came close to inviting Ceylan to a cage fight.
Demirkubuz proclaims that (1) Ceylan has been snubbing him for years; that (2) he’s secretly a selfish man who can’t be trusted; that (3) by concealing his true identity from the public, he has deserved being trashed by him on national television for more than two hours.
He also (4) accused Ceylan of using lengthy conversational scenes in his films to attack his character.
The whole thing resembles an episode of a novel by Dostoyevsky, an author both auteurs adore.
On WhatsApp groups, I saw family members ask: “Which side are you on? Ceylan or Demirkubuz?”
And it seems most people instinctively take the side of one of these filmmakers.
Some prefer Ceylan’s cool attitude which is a bit aloof. Others appreciate Demirkubuz’s passionate avenger role, which is aggressive and standoffish.
In either case, it is a good time to be alive for film buffs in Turkey: in the course of three months, we’ve been offered films by both auteurs. (Demirkubuz has titled his new film, simply, as Hayat—Life.)
Finally, I want to share the cover of the January 2024 issue of Birikim, a (New) leftist magazine that has appeared since 1975.
I grew up reading this Bible of the New Left in Turkey from cover to cover in the 1990s, so this is a big deal for me. How exciting to be finally become a Birikimci (a Birikim writer)—and write about Thomas Mann and his (bi)sexuality in its pages.
Here is a preview from my twelve-page-long essay.
Also out this month: a review of Suat Öğüt’s new exhibition at AVTO for the January 2024 issue of Artforum.
And a look at Cevdet Erek’s practice in the January 2024 issue of Sanat Dünyamız.
I wish all my readers a year of great films, books and self-discoveries.
Until next time,
—Kaya