Three Monkeys by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

After his critically acclaimed mood pieces 'Distant' and 'Climates', Turkey's leading filmmaker moves in a more plot-driven direction while retaining his mastery of ambience and nuance. Winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes, 'Three Monkeys' tells a twisty, noirish tale that opens with an ambitious politician fleeing a hit-and-run accident. Afraid of hurting his election chances, he pays off his chauffeur, Eyüp, to take the rap.

The film concerns the effects of this devil's bargain on Eyüp's shiftless son Ismail (who sees an expensive new car as his ticket to salvation), and on his restless wife, Hacer (who develops an ill-deserved passion for the oily politico). Ismail's discovery of his mother's infidelity and Eyüp's suspicions after he gets out of jail crank up the simmering tensions in a household already haunted by hidden ghosts.

In the spirit of Buñuel's 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie' and Haneke's 'Caché', 'Three Monkeys' mounts a caustic critique of the bourgeois family, riddled with hypocrisy yet stubbornly resilient in its seemingly boundless capacity to sidestep guilt and accountability. As in his previous films, Ceylan is unsurpassed at evoking both emotional and haunting cityscapes.

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