Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da)

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a 2011 crime drama written and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, produced as a Turkish-Bosnian co-production with contributions from TRT. Ceylan shared screenplay duties with Ebru Ceylan and Ercan Kesal, and the story grew out of a real experience Kesal had while working as a physician in rural Turkey. The roughly eleven-week shoot took place around the Keskin district of Kırıkkale.

The film follows police officers led by Commissioner Naci, accompanied by Prosecutor Nusret and Dr. Cemal, as they spend a long night on the Anatolian steppe with Kenan, a suspect who confessed to a killing but cannot recall exactly where the body is buried. Muhammet Uzuner, Yılmaz Erdoğan and Taner Birsel headline the cast. Premiering at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, where it shared the Grand Prix, the film opened across Turkey on 23 September 2011 and was chosen as the country's submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. In 2016 it was the only Turkish film on the BBC's list of the hundred greatest films of the 21st century.