But then the film reaches its climax, as months pass, when he flies to eastern Turkey, during winter, and begs Bahar to take him back. She refuses, and he flies away, as Bahar is left to look at his plane overhead, as snow falls down straight into the camera. Manifold interpretations can be made of the film, its use of symbolism, and so forth, but it is technically a superb film. Each succeeding film has seen Ceylan able to use more money on his films, and he does not waste any of it.
The film is a visual treat, and the acting is top notch; yet, the paradox is that neither of the main characters is remotely likeable, and that both are so repugnant would seem to make them a perfect match; save for the fact that people rarely are attracted to people who share their own flaws. Ceylan does not overtly give much in the film, in the way of dialogue, nor in the way of setting up predictable scenes. As example, when Isa begs for Bahar to return to him, it is in a van where people keep interrupting their conversation to get or return television equipment. It provides relief, to an extent, from the potential melodrama of the moment, but it also humanizes the scene. Compare this to many of the serious films of Ingmar Bergman (another director to whom Ceylan is oft compared), and you will see that Ceylan has already surpassed Bergman in this sort of realism.
It is also in scenes like this that Ceylan dashes many of the film’s critics’ claims that his characters cannot be related to. This simply is not so. We have all met and known Isas and Bahars. The reality is that most people do not like such people. But, liking someone, and understanding them are two different things, although often they are conflated. Another criticism of Ceylan is that "with all his visual brilliance, (Ceylan) primarily makes festival films — beautiful, but more invested in the world of art than in life itself." In short, the bad critics fall back on that worst and eternally debunked claim, that all art is (and must be) political, and by focusing on higher things, Ceylan is, in effect, delimiting his art.
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