Clouds of May (Turkey / 1998) 



Mayis sikintisi from 1998, Ceylan's second film (about the filming of his first) must be somehow the second part of an (until now?) unofficial trilogy, with Uzak at its end. The same protagonists as in Uzak are presented here though not yet as disillusioned and estranged by life. Three generations are presented in this tale of birth and death, showcasing nature and mans place he tries to find in it. 
While shooting a fake documentary the protagonist fails to record the wonders of life happening around himself - Ceylan does it instead for us - and is unable to connect with his fellow people. Traditions are vanishing, families are falling appart, in short, life is moving on without anybody noticing. At the end we have a beautiful finale where the sense and fulfillment of one life are shown, and the viewer is released with a feeling that he has somehow become a better person.

My initial thoughts on this film. My comments are a bit sparse, and my response to the film wasn't entirely positive. During the screening I saw (a double-bill that included "Distant") I had to eke out an access to it. My problem was the unsympathetic male protagonist (portrayed as maybe an even bigger @#%$ in Uzak). Thinking about it now, it seems that Ceylan's films are to me some of the most sickeningly melancholic films I've seen. I'm an extremely melancholic person myself, and as such it's very hard to enjoy his offerings. Ceylan's latest film isn't an exception. 

The best I can say about him is that he is self-reflective and sometimes achieves the poetic mood in Orhan Pamuk's novels. "Clouds of May" gets better with time, and I'm sure it's one of the films which gain much on subsequent viewings. His films also say a lot about present day Turkey in a similar fashion Kiarostami is dealing with his native Iran in his films from the 90s. 

Ceylan may present embittered characters, but he himself is not without hope.