Muzaffer Özdemir

Uzak/Distant chronicles the numbing loneliness, longing, and isolation in the lives of two men who are consumed by their own problems. Istanbul photographer Mahmut reluctantly receives his relative Yusuf, but the mingling of their lives does little to alleviate their detachment.

This is the directorial debut of Muzaffer Ozdemir, Palme d'Or awarded actor of Uzak / Distant (2002) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and also an actor in the Ceylan films Kasaba / The Small Town (1997) and Clouds of May (1999). Dogan, a pessimistic and neurotic architect, falls ill while camping with his friends nearby Istanbul. His doctor advises traveling. Longing for his homeland, Dogan sets off on a short break to the town of his childhood, whence he did not have the opportunity to visit since years. But not even the countryside has escaped the homogenizing concrete web cast by the modern technological age and liberal mentality inimical to the Earth.

This is a movie within a movie, about a director, Muzaffer, who goes back to his hometown to make a film using a cast of local people (based on the director Ceylan's first feature, Kasaba). While Muzaffer is around, his mother complains about simple health problems, his father is in a legal fight against the government for his land, his cousin leaves his job to help Muzaffer who promises to find him work in Istanbul, and his little cousin Ali tries to carry an egg in his pocket for forty days so that he'll get the watch of his dreams. In the meantime, they form the cast for Muzaffer's movie as well.

Told from the perspective of two children, and in four parts which run parallel to seasons, The Small Town describes the relationships between members of a small-town family. Both brother and sister witness the complexities of the adult world, as well as the mysteries of life and nature.

A cab driver, a teahouse owner and an out-of-work journalist live in a down-at-heel suburb of Ankara. When the driver tells his friends tales of the murky and unlawful dealings of his passengers, they install a camera to record the passengers.