It’s often remarked that you need an innate sense of empathy to create art, but Nuri Bilge Ceylan is becoming increasingly obsessed with artists who view everybody around them with utter contempt. His previous film, 2014’s Palme D’Or winning Winter Sleep, followed an ageing former actor who was now a struggling novelist, whose downfall was maintaining a misplaced sense of pride due to a local newspaper column, giving him an ego that made him a pariah of his small town.
The Wild Pear Tree could be a spiritual prequel in many ways, following a struggling young writer, newly graduated from university, whose utter disdain for the world around him sees him burning all bridges to a literary career before they’ve even been built.
Exhausting – but in a good way
Ceylan’s writing is more indebted to the literary greats, namely his recurring influences of Chekhov and Dostoevsky, than any other filmmaker, and there is a distinctively literary sense to how he builds his character studies. There are few other filmmakers who can make an extensive three hour runtime (the cinematic equivalent of the epics of those authors) feel not just rewarding, but necessary, delving deep into the mundanity of the protagonist’s life and, in a remarkably subtle fashion, the very nature of coming-of-age under authoritarian rule. More impressively, he makes you want to spend time examining the life of an easily detestable individual – even if the sheer amount of time in his company does prove to be exhausting once the end credits finally roll.
Sinan (Dogu Demirkol) is a university graduate who returns from his studies to move back in with his family. They live in a village near the Turkish port city of Çanakkale, which proves to be a stifling atmosphere to Sinan, especially as he’s set all his sights on getting his debut novel, “The Wild Pear Tree”, published, while halfheartedly training to become a teacher. He strongly detests his hometown, yet has written about it in a bittersweet way in the hopes of attracting local publisher attention – which leaves those he does meet confused as to why he didn’t write a guidebook aimed at tourists instead.
His familial relationships are also put under intense strain after his father (Murat Cemcir) has become crippled by a gambling addiction, which has made him an embarrassment to the local community. He’s a school teacher, yet all the parents see him gambling all day, and his wife has to confiscate his pay-packet at the start of each month to make sure the earnings from his job can actually be spent to help the family. It’s the sort of environment that has made Sinan retreat back into a perpetual adolescence, with any personal growth during his time at university jettisoned in favour of pettily lashing out at the world around him, even if it stalls his dream of becoming a respected author.
Spending such an extensive amount of time with Sinan would be insufferable in the hands of many other filmmakers, but Ceylan makes time spent in his company illuminating, even if he doesn’t become easily empathetic. Winter Sleep had a darkly comic undercurrent when approaching its central character’s approach to the world around him, but with The Wild Pear Tree, the director goes one further and overtly finds the humour in the most pathetic recesses of his leading character.
The standout sequence is an extensive, 20-minute passage where Sinan bumps into a respected author (Serkan Keskin) he saw deliver a talk many months before. Initially good natured and responsive, Sinan’s tendency to needlessly insult throws the conversation off the rails – and his self destruction would be tragic, if it didn’t play out as an unexpected diversion into cringe comedy from Ceylan.
The Turkish Holden Caulfield?
The Wild Pear Tree feels like his most accessible film for this very reason; it still draws on the influence of Chekhov, but those less versed in literature can find shades of Holden Caulfield in Sinan, made even more striking by the fact this character is already a fully grown adult, not a teenager forging an empty rebellion against society. Similarly, Sinan doesn’t feel like a particularly smart individual, but his talent for writing gives him a thoroughly unearned sense of superiority – here, he wants his work to be beloved by a society he has no interest in being a part of. In terms of cinematic comparisons, the closest film to this story is Alex Ross Perry’s Listen Up Philip, but stripped of cynicism; this is a late blooming coming-of-age story, whereas that was about a thoroughly unlikeable, misanthropic author.
Ceylan’s screenplay is subtle in its portrayal of growing up under authoritarian rule, but this proves to be an important factor into understanding aspects of Sinan’s character. This is first introduced via an early phone call, speaking to a friend who has undertaken military service about the times he’s gleefully beaten up “leftists”. But from there, it’s always bubbling under the service.
From TV’s in the background that switch from coverage of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (whose rule has led many democratic institutions to crumble) to mind numbing soap operas, to Sinan’s dismissive criticisms of a former school friend as a “feminist”, the pervasive nature of the country’s current conservative climate seeps into the very essence of the character study. Sinan thinks he’s smart, and different from all the people in his hometown – and yet, whenever any political opinions are addressed, he’s singing from the same hymn sheet, with his misanthropy failing to disguise a lack of independent thought.
The Wild Pear Tree: Conclusion
The Wild Pear Tree does prove to be exhausting, due to the amount of time spent in the company of Sinan. But if anything, this is more of a credit to Ceylan’s film, crafting a character study so richly detailed, the audience is left feeling like we’ve actually spent time with such an insufferable individual once its all over.
It’s not the director’s best film (that honour still goes to 2011’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), but it’s the best entry point for those looking to get acquainted with his work. You’d cross the street to avoid bumping into Sinan, but in the hands of Ceylan, you’ll be eager to follow him throughout this film’s epic length.
The Wild Pear Tree will be released in the UK on November 30, 2018 and in the US on January 30, 2019. For all international release dates, see here.
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