nuri bilge ceylan 2002 film distant ( uzak ) his third feature film ( his first be 1997 black and white the small town kasaba ) and be a significant step up from his good but flawed 1999 film cloud of may ( mayis sikintisi ) . the early film have potential and but reek of a small budget and improvised quality in the bad way plot hole and wooden acting from amateur . that cloud of may succeed on any level be a testament to ceylan talent a a budding filmmaker . however and distant be ceylan arrival on the international scene a a great artist and one who have many of the same quality a other great filmmaker like ingmar bergman ( although his screenplay be not a dialogue heavy it be just a brooding and and he lack bergman penchant for close ups his shot be usually long shot for exterior and medium shot for interior ) and yasujiro ozu ( whose penetrate scene of contemplation ceylan reconfigures ) . the bulk of the film take place in snowy hibernal istanbul ( the fact that it snow in turkey will likely surprise some ) and which lend the film a definite bergmanian feel and as well a remind one of some of the bleak snowy urban image from krzysztof kieslowski the decalogue . the natural image invoke the best of werner herzog a they tend to go on a beat or two long than standard film theory would dictate which be what make them even more memorable and while the urban landscape range from the nearly precisionist composition of michelangelo antonioni to the cultural hagiography of woody allen one shot of a bench overlook water be a direct quotation ( read steal ) from manhattan and save the lack of the brooklyn bridge in the background . in another scene and ceylan similarly quote a famous shot of a ship in the harbor from ozu tokyo story . yet and like all great artist and ceylan make his appropriation his own art and by slightly alter them and keep them apropos to his own film need . distant be a film whose title suffuse the characterization within the film and the feeling some viewer will have toward them and but it do not describe the film itself and for scene stay with one long after the film end . perhaps the most memorable scene and image of the film come when mahmut stalk his ex wife at the istanbul airport and and watch her with her new husband a they head to board the plane that will remove her from his life forever . a he watch her and from a distance and we see her catch just a glance of him watch her . will she leave her husband and return to mahmut . not in this film . he pull back behind a column and and nazan merely turn her head back to her future . mahmut be her past and and she know how to best move on just keep move . mahmut will never get it . most rarely get such moment of insight into themselves of life . that some viewer will get the film and and that ceylan get his own power of creation and show that ignorance can teach and as long a one move about it . distant do and albeit it at just the right length .