About Dry Grasses

From the very first image of a snowy landscape near a village in eastern Anatolia, it's clear that Turkish film auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Winter Sleep, The Wild Pear Tree) is once again presenting his equally talkative and visually overwhelming cinema against the backdrop of an inhospitable region. Samet is a teacher who gets too close with Sezim, one of his students, and gets into trouble for it. He is a man without ideals, a misanthrope whose flame has been extinguished before it even ignited. Can Nuray, a woman who lost a leg in a terrorist attack, save his soul? Ceylan, as so often, offers a patient masterclass in dissecting men who erect walls in front of them and wade into self-pity. With explosive tête-à-têtes and a literary style somewhere between Chekhov and Nabokov, Ceylan manages to paint an emotionally and intellectually rich portrait of the male ego.

"Nuri Bilge Ceylan delivers a pastoral masterpiece about Turkey's contemporary complexities. It's a searing, mesmerizing and unforgettably wintry mood piece and a stunning character study of an apathetic man in a country both hopeful and weary." - The Wrap