Clouds of May

Ceylan’s second film—in some ways a “making of” his first—tells the story of a filmmaker (Muzaffer Özdemir) who returns to the village of his childhood to scout locations for a new project. But a new element emerges with the figure of Sadik (Sadik Incesu), an aimless young man who sees the filmmaker as his ticket to escape the provinces for the bright lights of Istanbul. Immersed in the sounds and textures of its rural environment and filmed with an unforced attentiveness, Clouds of May establishes the tension between documentary and drama that drives much of Ceylan’s later work.