CLIMATES aka IKLIMLER

Year: 2006
USA: Zeitgeist Films
UK: Artificial Eye
Cast: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Nazan Kesal, Mehmet Eryilmaz, Arif Asçi, Can Özbatur, Ufuk Bayraktar, Fatma Ceylan, M Emin Ceylan, Semra Yilmaz, Ceren Olcay, Abdullah Demirkubuz, Feridun Koç, Zafer Saka
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Countries: Turkey / France
Language: Turkish (English subtitles)
USA: 101 mins
UK: 102 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains one scene of strong sex
USA Release Date: 10 November 2006 (Limited Release - Los Angeles)
USA Release Date: 27 October 2006 (Limited Release - New York)
UK Release Date: 9 February 2006

US Distributor
UK Distributor

Synopsis

Winner of the prestigious Fipresci Award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, CLIMATES is internationally acclaimed writer/director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's sublime follow-up to his Cannes multi-award winner DISTANT. Beautifully drawn and meticulously observed, the film vividly recalls the cinema of Italian master Michelangelo Antonioni with its poetic use of landscape and the incisive, exquisitely visual rendering of loneliness, loss and the often-elusive nature of happiness.

During a sweltering summer vacation on the Aegean coast, the relationship between middle-aged professor Isa (played by Ceylan himself) and his younger, television producer girlfriend Bahar (the luminous Ebru Ceylan, Ceylan's real-life wife) brutally implodes. Back in Istanbul that fall, Isa rekindles a torrid affair with a previous lover. But when he learns that Bahar has left the city for a job in the snowy East, he follows her there to win her back.

Boasting subtly powerful performances, heart-stoppingly stunning cinematography (Ceylan's first work in high definition) and densely textured sound design, CLIMATES is the Turkish filmmaker's most gorgeous rumination yet on the fragility and complexity of human relationships.