Given the controversial subject matter, there’s something remarkably placid about the way About Dry Grasses proceeds. Amidst the snowy white steppes of Eastern Anatolia, writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan slowly lets the plot unfold through multiple conversations, where an accusation of inappropriate contact leads to a he-said, she-said investigation, all centered around a misanthropic protagonist Samet. By focusing the entire film on Samet, Ceylan takes the time to understand this difficult, exhausting character in a detached manner, with the camera oftentimes taking in the whole lived-in, rundown places where Samet lives and works in. It’s an interesting perspective, depicting the ways everyone’s fumbling around, trying to create boxes to understand one’s place in the world, but it’s not an easy one to explore. About Dry Grasses dares to do so, anyway.
"“About Dry Grasses” may be unhurried, with languid steppe-by-steppe pacing and long, luxuriant, exquisitely sculpted conversations, but it is also nimble, alert, and alive in ways that seem to have taken Ceylan himself by surprise."
— Justin Chang
"Ceylan... makes three-and-half hours whiz by with this comic portrait of an untreatable misanthrope."
— David Jenkins
A young art teacher hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of inappropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape fade and he descends further into an existential crisis.
Finishing up his fourth year of compulsory service in wintry East Anatolia, young public school art teacher Samet yearns to leave for the warmer, cosmopolitan Istanbul, but cannot do so due to allegations that prevent him from the move. Because of this, Samet loses hope, though an encounter with fellow teacher Nuray might help him confront his circumstances.
The runtime. With the film being over three hours, and conducted mostly through conversations, the pacing makes the runtime feel challenging, especially for viewers new to Ceylan’s style.
I wish we got to see this through Nuray’s perspective.
