Winter Sleep review

Whilst the winner of Best Picture at the annual Academy Award’s may point towards the film that was most entertaining or most gripping, the Palme d’Or acknowledges and rewards a different breed of cinema. The top prize at Cannes Film Festival is awarded to those showing great innovation; seeking the more profound, provocative and emotionally stirring pieces that challenge their viewer. This year, it was Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep that was triumphant, and despite how indelible the feature may be, it’s lacking a certain spark that deems it worthy of winning such an accolade.

This gruelling picture – that surpasses the three-hour mark – tells the story of Aydin (Haluk Bilginer), a former actor who now runs a small, remote hotel, while indulging himself in a weekly column for the local paper. We pensively explore his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Nihal (Melisa Sozen), and the tension that mounts from the conflict with a local family who owe rent, as the gulf between social classes is studiously examined.

This slow-burning, minimalist slice of art-house cinema has a tension bubbling underneath it throughout: never allowing the viewer to relax; always anticipating a disaster; and yet the tone rarely fluctuates, and the pace stays the same throughout. This is merely an intimate character study of this one man, proving that we don’t need superfluous drama to craft a narrative, and that sometimes a more subtle offering can be equally as captivating. What helps tremendously is Ceylan’s unique approach to dialogue, as, much like his preceding endeavour Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, there’s a sharpness to the screenplay that’s almost Tarantino-esque, and yet it never becomes overtly cinematic: always holding on to that sense of realism.

Winter Sleep is a thought-provoking drama that will undoubtedly stick with you, as you struggle to lose that image of the stark, unforgiving wilderness that works as the backdrop to this tale – adding a sense of serenity to compliment the more intense aspects of the narrative. However given it won the much coveted, and hugely prestigious Palme d’Or, you couldn’t be blamed for expecting something just a little more special.