Distant

Translated into English as Distant, this bleak and poignant drama directed by Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan reflects on the loneliness and neuroses of modern urban life. Mahmut (Muzaffer Özdemir) is a middle-aged photographer living and working in Istanbul, whose tidy habits and cool demeanour are tried when his young cousin Yusuf (Emin Toprak, who was tragically killed in a car crash shortly after the film was completed) comes to stay with him while he looks for work. Yusuf is a good-natured but insensitive country boy from a poor village background, while Mahmut is a modern professional who is on the verge of a mid-life crisis since his ex-wife's announcement that she is leaving for Canada with her new husband. The two men form an awkward relationship, which is reflected in their inability to communicate with others around them. (Big World Pictures)