Release Date: May 1
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writers: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cinematographer: Gökhan Tiryaki
Starring: Yavuz Bingol, Hartrice Aslan,
Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal
Studio/Run Time: Zeitgeist, 109 mins.
Evil is subtle, but undeniable, in
fascinating Turkish family drama
So much goes unsaid in Three
Monkeys, that the simian alluded to in the title seems likely to
be the one who “speaks no evil.” Likewise, in this Nuri Bilge
Ceylan’s Cannes-wowing noir, the two killings (one
accidental, the other premeditated) that bookend the story are never
seen. And what is heard, amid the torturously intimate unraveling of
a Turkish family, is only as audible as a sigh, a quickening
heartbeat, the crack of a palm across a face. Masterfully lensed in
dark hues and long static shots, Monkeys tracks the
consequences of a cover-up that sends a politician’s chauffeur to
jail for a hit-and-run, instead of the guilty man. There’s a pay
off involved, which inspires greed in the driver’s shiftless son,
and triggers a sudden passion in his wife, who begins a dangerous
affair. All nuance and aftershock, the narrative accumulates into
moments of unnerving power, limned in sustained dread as faces gaze
into darkness. It’s spooky, soul-jarring stuff.