Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan is our greatest living filmmaker, and 2011's "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is still his greatest film. Set deep in the heart of an ancient land, the film probes both myth and psychology in seamless fashion.
In ArtiFact no. 69, filmmaker Alex Sheremet and critic Keith Jackewicz analyze the film in-depth.
Subscribe to Patreon and get the full show ad-free: patreon.com/c/automachination
Read Dan Schneider's essay on "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia": automachination.com/masterpiece-nuri-bilge-ceylan-anatolia
Bonus show topics: Ceylan's influences; favorite vs. best films; extracting artistic influence from less-than-great films; Alex's digital detox; Keith's frustration with a VERY foxlike dog; Alex's doglike cat; the ignorance of the Trump administration; Alex bullies Max "Shit Tank" Abrahms on Twitter; America was sold moronic propaganda about Iran; Persia as the fulcrum of the world; after crying wolf for decades, ACTUAL anti-Semitism is now coming to America; destroying the neoliberal dream; dissecting Professor Jiang Xueqin; is China "innately" anti-war; oppression in Xinjian vs. America's targeting of nonwhites; why is America so brutal in its punishments; Alex's VIRAL post attracts Japanese nationalist weirdos; Japan's Unit 731 vs. Germany's Josef Mengele; assessing the 2028 election contenders; and much more...
Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: spoti.fi/3xw2M4D
Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3wLpqEV
Amazon Music: amzn.to/2SVJIxB
Podbean: bit.ly/3yzLuUo
iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L
Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel
Read more from the automachination universe: automachination.com
Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
0:00 -- why Nuri Bilge Ceylan is the greatest living filmmaker; the one question Keith didn't get to ask Ceylan; the John Cassavetes connection; why "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is difficult to discuss
6:20 -- Once Upon A Time In Anatolia vs. Once Upon A Time In The West; how the film plays with myth without touching mythology; the symbolism of time
16:15 -- landscape as psychology; viewer empathy for the film's "killers"; Ceylan's unique use of humor; Arab: slur or diminutive?
27:56 -- the poetic use of past tense dictation of present tense events; odd details during the autopsy scene
32:16 -- the trope of "gorgeous women"; Nuri Bilge Ceylan's use of masculinity; women are kept at a distance; how a stray comment becomes central to the film
38:50 -- cinematic contrasts; village teenager with a lamp vs. Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam"; Ceylan's idea that "everything must be earned these days"; psychological profiles
49:15 -- is light vs. dark a cinematic cliche; can we say definitively what happened (or didn't happen) with the murder; "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is the better version of Kurosawa's "Rashomon"; the lack of clarity is the point
59:55 -- Alex: as a viewer, I avoided creating "the" definitive narrative in my mind; the great symbolism of the squirt of blood at the autopsy
1:09:10 -- one of the few films worth the Blu-Ray release; the anti-symbol of the rolling apples; "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is 99/100; Nuri Bilge Ceylan has the GREATEST list of "best films ever"; Steve McQueen gave up his chance at being the world's greatest filmmaker
1:17:15 -- dream-like sequences in the film; did Kenan "see" his friend's asphyxiation; the dog at the film's start vs. the dog at the end; the more ethereal elements that go into great filmmaking
Tags: #film #turkey #türkiye
Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan is our greatest living filmmaker, and 2011's "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is still his greatest film. Set deep in the heart of an ancient land, the film probes both myth and psychology in seamless fashion.
In ArtiFact no. 69, filmmaker Alex Sheremet and critic Keith Jackewicz analyze the film in-depth.
Subscribe to Patreon and get the full show ad-free: patreon.com/c/automachination
Read Dan Schneider's essay on "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia": automachination.com/masterpiece-nuri-bilge-ceylan-anatolia
Bonus show topics: Ceylan's influences; favorite vs. best films; extracting artistic influence from less-than-great films; Alex's digital detox; Keith's frustration with a VERY foxlike dog; Alex's doglike cat; the ignorance of the Trump administration; Alex bullies Max "Shit Tank" Abrahms on Twitter; America was sold moronic propaganda about Iran; Persia as the fulcrum of the world; after crying wolf for decades, ACTUAL anti-Semitism is now coming to America; destroying the neoliberal dream; dissecting Professor Jiang Xueqin; is China "innately" anti-war; oppression in Xinjian vs. America's targeting of nonwhites; why is America so brutal in its punishments; Alex's VIRAL post attracts Japanese nationalist weirdos; Japan's Unit 731 vs. Germany's Josef Mengele; assessing the 2028 election contenders; and much more...
Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: spoti.fi/3xw2M4D
Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3wLpqEV
Amazon Music: amzn.to/2SVJIxB
Podbean: bit.ly/3yzLuUo
iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L
Learn about our debut film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": automachination.com/cityboy-bruce-ario-great-american-novel
Read more from the automachination universe: automachination.com
Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
0:00 -- why Nuri Bilge Ceylan is the greatest living filmmaker; the one question Keith didn't get to ask Ceylan; the John Cassavetes connection; why "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is difficult to discuss
6:20 -- Once Upon A Time In Anatolia vs. Once Upon A Time In The West; how the film plays with myth without touching mythology; the symbolism of time
16:15 -- landscape as psychology; viewer empathy for the film's "killers"; Ceylan's unique use of humor; Arab: slur or diminutive?
27:56 -- the poetic use of past tense dictation of present tense events; odd details during the autopsy scene
32:16 -- the trope of "gorgeous women"; Nuri Bilge Ceylan's use of masculinity; women are kept at a distance; how a stray comment becomes central to the film
38:50 -- cinematic contrasts; village teenager with a lamp vs. Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam"; Ceylan's idea that "everything must be earned these days"; psychological profiles
49:15 -- is light vs. dark a cinematic cliche; can we say definitively what happened (or didn't happen) with the murder; "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is the better version of Kurosawa's "Rashomon"; the lack of clarity is the point
59:55 -- Alex: as a viewer, I avoided creating "the" definitive narrative in my mind; the great symbolism of the squirt of blood at the autopsy
1:09:10 -- one of the few films worth the Blu-Ray release; the anti-symbol of the rolling apples; "Once Upon A Time In Anatolia" is 99/100; Nuri Bilge Ceylan has the GREATEST list of "best films ever"; Steve McQueen gave up his chance at being the world's greatest filmmaker
1:17:15 -- dream-like sequences in the film; did Kenan "see" his friend's asphyxiation; the dog at the film's start vs. the dog at the end; the more ethereal elements that go into great filmmaking
Tags: #film #turkey #türkiye
