Uzak (Distant) (2002)

Some directors are so minimalist and slow, that watching their well-thought of films is something that I find painful.  In particular I am thinking of the Hungarian director Bela Tarr whose downbeat films are also exceptionally long and the Taiwanese director Ming-Liang Tsai whose films affect me like Chinese water torture.  Add to these two the name of Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan who is responsible for this film.  Perhaps I am really missing something, but the draggy story of the unemployed country cousin coming to the big city to look for work and staying with his older and now successful cousin was without a great deal of development or interest.  Yes, they are a mismatched pair and family loyalties fall victim ultimately to the disgust of having an unwelcome visitor.  Their individual stories are only sketchily filled out and neither is particularly "grabby".  Apparently the younger actor died in a car crash shortly after the film was finished and was posthumously awarded best actor jointly with his co-star at Cannes in 2003.  I was not really aware of any "acting" going on, and please don't tell me that this is the true sign of good acting.  It was all too boring for that.