Art in the Time of Apathy
A Review of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Turkish film ‘The Wild Pear Tree’ (2018)
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In his notebook he [Anton Chekov] made this entry: “The Turk digs a well for the salvation of his soul.” -Vladimir Nabokov
For a typical youngster, returning to his hometown after graduation is the time when he faces the reality. He finds that his ambitions are not all that easy to achieve especially if it is of the creative kind. Unlike in a city, he doesn’t even have anybody to share his interest so he ends up a loner. The girl for whom he had a fancy in school may prefer to marry into wealth. There is also the conflict with his father who may influence him on his future plans. The feeling of superiority and arrogance he picked up in college aren’t of much help. It is almost the same for the young Sinan (Aydin Doğu Demirkol) in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree except that his father Idris (Murat Cemcir), a teacher by profession, is not the one to force his ideas but Sinan still has trouble with him. The first person Sinan bumps into after returning to the small town of Çan with a college degree at Çanakkale is the jeweller who informs him about the loan of three gold coins his father Idris has taken and hasn’t repaid. Idris’s addiction to gambling impacts Sinan particularly in his attempt to have his book printed after the town mayor and a sand merchant refuse to fund him.
Structure
The story revolves around how Sinan gets his book published despite all odds but director Ceylan’s ambition lies in exploring the human condition and not just in narrating a story. Hence, instead of a plot driven narrative, he has made it episodic with long conversations like his previous film, Winter Sleep (2014) that won Palm d’Or at Cannes. The Wild Pear Tree is somewhat shorter than his previous film but at 188 minutes it is also very long. It packs a greater number of episodes with longer conversations giving it the structure of a novel with each one of the episodes forming a chapter. Although the central theme of the film is the father son relationship, many of these discussions add perspective and intensity to the film especially the ones with Hatice (Hazar Ergüçlü) — the girl who went to school with him, Suleyman (Serkan Keskin) — the successful author, and the two imams.
Bumping into Hatice
Running for about 12 minutes, this episode is a fascinating short film by itself. Having kindled her interest in reading books in school, Sinan is surprised to know that Hatice has stopped her studies with high school. He doesn’t even recognize her in this scene at first as she is wearing a headscarf. The contrasting views on their home town comes through. Sinan is dismissive of the small-minded and bigoted people in Çan and doesn’t want to rot there. He is going to take the exam and become a teacher in the east or do military service. The stunning Hatice finds all kinds of beautiful things there. Sinan comes to know that she is getting married to a jeweller, perhaps the one we see in the beginning of the film. She is in a different world and Sinan can’t even talk to her about his book project. This is a sensuous scene in which Hatice takes off her headscarf and lets her hair fly in the wind. She shares a cigarette with him and then there is the parting kiss. This charming as well as somewhat moving episode is very well shot in sylvan surroundings capturing the changing moods.
Accosting Suleyman
This is the standout scene in the film that runs for about 15 minutes. Sinan happens to see Suleyman, the successful writer in a bookshop. Sinan approaches him introducing himself as a writer of a quirky auto-fiction meta novel and then attacks him and other leading writers of trying to market their books by writing exaggerated profiles of themselves for a symposium. He follows Suleyman through the streets and probes him about the letter from a writer, who didn’t attend the symposium, conveying his contempt for the writers attending such events. Suleyman calls Sinan an incurably obsessed romantic. After naively making his onslaught on Suleyman and the literary establishment, Sinan has the temerity to request Suleyman to read his manuscript and give his feedback. The physically exhausted Suleyman has no time for it and we have all the sympathy for him. Towards the end of the film after Sinan finds out that not even a single copy of his book has been bought at the bookshop, he sees the poster for Suleyman’s new book. The argument between the two makes it a powerful scene.
Discussion with the two imams
This is the longest discussion running for about 21 minutes that Sinan has with his friend imam Veysel and Nazmi the new imam of a neighbouring village. Sinan catches them furtively plucking apples from a tree and makes fun of imam Veysel for chasing after the forbidden fruit. The three of them walk together engaged in a conversation. Veysel is a conservative who makes a case for holding onto tradition while the more liberal Nazmi talks about the need for change. Sinan advocates free will triggering a debate on it. Veysel stresses upon the need for faith. This long discussion on religion may be the kind a character like Sinan would have in a country like Turkey. Ceylan manages to tie it with the film by having Veysel making comments on Sinan’s father Idris. Curiously Sinan defends his father saying that no one should consider themselves pure as the driven snow. “Isn’t everyone bound to each other by invisible threads” he asks Veysel. This goes right into the heart of the Ceylan film that makes a case for the so-called losers like Idris and Sinan. There are quotations from poets in a number of scenes in the film giving it a philosophical tone which is a contrast to what is heard from the TV.
Other Episodes
The meetings with the mayor and the sand supplier convey the ordeals Sinan has to go through in his utterly incompetent efforts at fund raising. The mayor boasts of being approachable but gets rid of him by suggesting that Ilhami, the sand supplier is the right man to fund such projects. Both the mayor and Ilhami are not amused that it is a personal memoir and it is not a book for promoting tourism or about War Cemetery or the ancient Troy near Çanakkale. It transpires that Ilhami used to be a patron of the arts out of vested interest as the town council used to buy a lot of sand from him. A school dropout, he is proud of being self-made unlike his educated friends who are unsuccessful. He gives Sinan life advice making Sinan wonder whether he should earn money and fund the publishing himself. Yet another episode covers a long phone conversation Sinan has with his friend in riot police. This friend graduated in literature with which he couldn’t earn his bread. So, he took up a police job, a well-paid one that involves firing tear gas shells and water cannons to disperse crowds. He is callous about bashing up communists saying that it is a way of taking stress out on someone else. If Sinan doesn’t get a teaching job, he too will have to join the police. It is difficult to relate to the conversation between Sinan and Nevzat at the restaurant at Çanakkale but this may make sense to the local audience.
Father son relationship
Easily the most rewarding aspect of the film is its central theme of the relationship between Sinan and his father Idris treated without any sentimentality. There is also the minor conflict between Idris and his father living in the nearby village. He ridicules Idris’ effort to dig a well as he and the villagers are convinced that it is futile to find water in that area. Anton Chekov has written in his notebook, according to Vladimir Nabokov, that the Turk digs a well for the salvation of his soul. That explains Idris’ persistence. Sinan feels bad that his father lost all the money he made by selling the house in gambling which left the family struggling. He is sore with his mother Asuman (Bennu Yildirimlar) when she says that his father has taken good care of him. A sizable part of the money that Sinan has saved for his book project is missing from his coat. Sinan wonders whether it was the work of his father. Eventually Sinan sells his father’s hunting dog without his knowledge to fund the publishing of his book. Idris cannot bear the missing of his beloved dog. As Sinan’s mother says, it was the only living thing that didn’t judge him. Towards the end Sinan finds that there is not even a single sale of his book and nobody has read it at home except his father who appreciates it too. The title of his book is the same as the title of the film and Sinan fondly remembers that it was his father who talked about the wild pears in primary school. Sinan tells his father Idris that he, Idris and Idris’ father remind him of a wild pear tree. They are all misfits, solitary and misshapen he says. Idris says in reply to Sinan that the fruit of wild pear is misshapen but it is very good. In the end when Sinan pursues what his father used to attempt and got ridiculed for, apart from conveying his resolve to persevere in his literary effort for the salvation of his soul, it is also a sign of his acceptance of his father.
How does it fare?
Like his previous films, Ceylan has made use of the Turkish landscape effectively. The main action is set in the small town of Çan and some of the scenes are shot in Çanakkale, a seaport which is about 70 kms to the west of Çan. The site of ancient Troy is not far from the city of Çanakkale. The “wooden horse” from the Wolfgang Peterson film Troy (2004), starring Brad Pitt, is exhibited at the seafront of Çanakkale and it figures in some of the shots especially in a dream sequence in the film. Ceylan has great support from Gökhan Tiryaki who has shot the film exquisitely in digital. There is a memorable image of a child the way Idris’ father has seen his son. Murat Cemcir has given an excellent performance as Idris in this film which has uniformly good acting. An excerpt from Bach’s “Passacaglia in C minor” is the recurring theme that elevates the film. The film has been scripted by Akin Aksu, who plays the role of imam Veysel, Ceylan’s wife Ebru, and Ceylan. Ceylan has edited the film apart from directing it.
Ceylan’s love for literature can be seen in his film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia which had quotations from Chekov’s stories. The prosecutor’s story about his wife committing suicide in that film is based on a Chekhov’s short story. Winter Sleep was based on the works of Chekov and Dostoevsky. ‘The Wild Pear Tree’ is neither partly nor fully adapted from a literary work. But it breathes literature by narrating the story of a struggling writer and his place in society which doesn’t value literature. Photos of novelists such as Albert Camus, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Virginia Woolf can be seen in the background in a couple of scenes. The Wild Pear Tree is close to the 19th century Russian literature that Ceylan admires. It is the best film of 2018 as it is the magnum opus of a major filmmaker in contemporary cinema.
