Nuri Bilge Ceylan : “I do everything through instinct”

The director Nuri Bilge Ceylan came to talk about his film Bir zamanlar anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia). He was accompanied by the producer, Zeynep Ozbatur Ataka, the actors, Yilmaz Erdögan, Taner Birsel, Muhammet Uzuner, Taner Birsel and Ercan Kesal (who also worked on the script), the scriptwriter, Ebru Ceylan, and the cameraman, Gökhan Tiryaki.

Ercan Kesal on his transition from scriptwriter to one of the film’s actors

“During the writing of the script, we didn’t think about the actors, only about the storyline. I knew the world of bureaucracy very well. It was only after the scriptwriting was over that I really got into the part of the character.”

The director on his characters

“No one is wholly good or bad. When I create a character, I try to achieve a balance. It must always be possible to think that a character is just like yourself. Never just “somebody else”.

The cameraman on natural lighting

“Nuri pays very close attention to how things are in real life. He decided to use the moonlight, but it wasn’t enough. It occurred to us that a helium balloon could reproduce the same type of light… but that didn’t work either! This really was a very challenging film to make.”

The director´s way of working

“I do everything through instinct. I don´t do a shooting script. (…) I do, however, really like wide-angle views. The vastness of the shot calls to mind our place on Earth.”

Comments recorded by N.S.