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Distant

Play trailer Poster for Distant PG-13 Released Mar 12, 2004 1h 49m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
87% Tomatometer 46 Reviews 82% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
After losing his factory job, Yusuf (Mehmet Emin Toprak) leaves his Turkish village and travels to Istanbul in search of work. There, he lives with his cousin Mahmut (Muzaffer Özdemir), a well-to-do photographer. Yusuf, who assumed it would be easy to secure a position aboard a ship, has little luck in his job search. As the days go by, Mahmut clashes with his countrified cousin over their vast differences in personality -- and, perhaps more so, their uncomfortable similarities.
Distant

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Hauntingly beautiful, Distant communicates volumes with its almost pervasive silence.

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Critics Reviews

View All (46) Critics Reviews
Brandon Judell IndieWire "Distant," that's more like a warning than a title . . . . The two leads will eventually clash, but not enough to make this offering worthy of sitting through. Jun 5, 2021 Full Review Antonia Quirke London Evening Standard There is plenty to admire here, but the movie is a gaunt affair, with something ruinously washed-out about it. Dec 14, 2017 Full Review Jeff Shannon Seattle Times Deeply compassionate and frequently amusing, qualifying as a minor miracle of humanely observant filmmaking. Rated: 3/4 Jan 28, 2005 Full Review Ray Pride Newcity It is very sad but also very beautiful. (Particularly after snow flocks the gray-on-gray city.) There is one breathtaking moment, a scene involving a beached tanker in snow, that is merely the best of dozens of indelible fragments. Rated: 10/10 Jun 23, 2022 Full Review PJ Nabarro One Room With A View Ceylan's cinema affects a solipsism that leads to a heightened sense of one's own surroundings - thus creating not a slow cinema but an extremely attentive cinema. Rated: 4/5 Dec 2, 2018 Full Review Josh Ralske All Movie Guide The tale has a deceptive, emotional complexity that builds to a surprisingly heartrending impact. Rated: 8/10 Sep 8, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (243) audience reviews
Sam N Uzak (Distant) struck me as a quiet, contemplative look at loneliness—not just being alone, but that more profound kind of isolation you can feel even when someone’s right there. I admired Ceylan’s direction: those long, still shots, the wintry mood, the way silence does most of the talking. Muzaffer Özdemir felt totally believable as Mahmut—stuck in his routines, emotionally bottled up—while Mehmet Emin Toprak brought this quiet sadness to his role that stayed with me. I appreciated the craft and atmosphere but never entirely connected with it emotionally. Beautifully made, just a little too distant for me. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/28/25 Full Review hamid reza g A good movie is both enjoyable to watch and a movie that is noticed and stays in the mind. An unpretentious but powerful drama with a unique performance by both main actors, which shows a tactful direction. One of the attractive points of the film is the direction and cinematography. Another good point of the movie is the few dialogues, but appropriate. The film is a story of loneliness and alienation of people in today's life. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/28/23 Full Review Audience Member one of the best Turkish movie classics. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member That scene with Stalker on the tv screen really did this for me. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Tim G I don't mind slow and atmospheric and all that but jeez, this was snail-like. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/26/22 Full Review William L It feels as if films about isolation in a world of billions inevitably skew towards technology as the culprit, implying that there was some sort of idyllic balance before television and social media came along to chain everyone to some form of addictive content. Uzak takes a different, more universal stance on loneliness, largely independent of technology and more focused on clashes in personality, disillusionment, and emotional self-isolation. In their attempts to reach out and firmly graps some direct connection, Özdemir's Mahmut and Toprak's Yusuf only seem able to flail against the current, every day bleeding into the next as they observe others at a distance without the courage to take a decisive step. Bleak but riddled with cynical bits of humor, this is one of those films that may draw critics due to its slow pacing alone, but that tedium matches the thematic goals of the film and ends up reinforcing the development of the characters (or notable lack thereof). (3.5/5) Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/22 Full Review Read all reviews
Distant

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Movie Info

Synopsis After losing his factory job, Yusuf (Mehmet Emin Toprak) leaves his Turkish village and travels to Istanbul in search of work. There, he lives with his cousin Mahmut (Muzaffer Özdemir), a well-to-do photographer. Yusuf, who assumed it would be easy to secure a position aboard a ship, has little luck in his job search. As the days go by, Mahmut clashes with his countrified cousin over their vast differences in personality -- and, perhaps more so, their uncomfortable similarities.
Director
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Producer
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Screenwriter
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Distributor
New Yorker Films
Production Co
NBC Film
Rating
PG-13 (Creature Violence|Some Strong Language)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Turkish
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 12, 2004, Limited
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
May 20, 2022
Release Date (DVD)
Mar 1, 2007
Box Office (Gross USA)
$10.2K
Runtime
1h 49m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)