Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Top 50 Films of 2025
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1h 44m
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan • Drama • With Yavuz Bingöl, Hatice Aslan • 2008 • 106 minutes
Winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes, Three Monkeys is a moving, visually unforgettable triumph from the Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Thear Tree)
An ambitious politician flees a hit-and-run accident in the dead of night and a fraid of hurting his election chances, he pays off his chauffeur Eyup to take the rap. While Eyup stews in jail, this devil's bargain takes its toll on his son Ismail and restless wife Hacer, who falls into an affair with the politician. Ismail's discovery of his mother's infidelity and Eyup's suspicions after he gets out of jail begin to boil over as the family chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it. But does playing “Three Monkeys” invalidate the truth of its existence?
"An elegant exercise with four characters trapped by class, guilt and greed." —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
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