At the 46th Cairo International Film Festival, the Open-Air Theatre at the Cairo Opera House hosted a rare and intimate session with acclaimed Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan on Sunday, November 16.
Titled “Cinematic Reflections: A Journey into the Worlds of Nuri Bilge Ceylan,” the masterclass was moderated by renowned film critic Ahmed Shawky, president of FIPRESCI and the European Federation of Film Critics (EFCA).
The session offered filmmakers, critics, and cinephiles a unique window into the mind of a director celebrated for his contemplative realism, poetic imagery, and profound exploration of human psychology.
Ceylan reflected on the early stages of his artistic journey. At 15, he was fascinated by journalism and photography: “Photography came easily. No one told me about cinema back then.”
By 25, he had discovered a love for film. His early experiments included shooting himself in test footage and creating a one-shot film, which eventually led to his breakthrough feature, Kasaba.
He emphasized the dual foundation of his filmmaking process: collaboration with professional actors and partnership with the cinematographer, both essential to shaping the emotional precision and visual poetry of his work.
Ceylan described his films as attempts to answer the unanswerable questions of life: “These are questions without answers. Making a film is my attempt to answer them. It’s like therapy.”
He prefers small crews and intimate stories, believing that creative honesty thrives in simplicity.
His protagonists are never typical: “They are complicated, sometimes toxic. But they’re also logical, and in many ways, just one of us.”
He cited Dostoevsky as a major influence, particularly in exploring humiliation, societal pressures, and the psychological invasion of private life. With social media, he observes, “the whole world has become a small town.”
Literature, too, informs his cinema. Every film references canonical works such as Chekhov or Crime and Punishment, and he has long contemplated adapting Tawfik El Hakim’s diaries for the screen.
Ceylan spoke candidly about his creative methods: he prefers long takes, believing that the depth of human psychology emerges in unbroken sequences.
He added that dialogue, once something he feared, is now an integral storytelling tool: “I love dialogue when it serves the film. It was a challenge, but now I enjoy making it work.”
Furthermore, he rarely rehearses, preferring to search for meaning on set.
On editing, he expressed that the human mind is mirrored in the film: “Human psychology is complex. In editing, images catch each other. When something feels wrong, you know instantly.”
Ceylan also highlighted that he prefers using classical and Turkish music for his films, in complementing the emotional texture of his films.
On the importance of climate and seasons in his films, he said, “Human behavior changes with the seasons.”
Landscapes in his films often reflect emotional states, linking human experience with the natural world in subtle, poetic ways.
The masterclass offered an invaluable glimpse into the philosophy and craft of a filmmaker whose work has captivated international audiences, winning acclaim at Cannes and beyond.
Ceylan’s reflections illuminated how literature, psychology, landscape, and human behavior intersect in his films, creating cinematic worlds that are at once intimate, contemplative, and universally resonant.
Through this session, Cairo Industry Days not only celebrated one of the world’s most thoughtful directors but also provided emerging filmmakers and audiences with insight into the art of cinema as a medium of inquiry, reflection, and profound human connection.
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