Three Monkeys
Üç maymun
Turkey
2008
109 Min
Color
Turkish
159 Views
Üç maymun
Synopsis
Servet, a 50-ish politician, has caused the death of a person after a hit-and-run accident. He fears that the accident will affect his election chances. The next day, he persuades his driver Eyüp to confess and serve the jail term for him. In exchange, Servet will pay Eyüp’s wife Hacer and teenage son Ismael his full salary in order to make them financially secure. Eyüp goes to prison. Meanwhile, Hacer approaches Servet for help when Ismael starts to get into trouble with some bad company. Hacer ends up much more involved with Servet than she had expected…
A family, dislocated when small failings blow up into extravagant lies, battles against the odds to stay together by covering up the truth. In order to avoid hardship and responsibilities, the family, like the three monkeys, chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it.
Director
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Nuri Bilge Ceylan (born 26 January 1959 in Istanbul) is a Turkish photographer and film director. He is married to the filmmaker, photographer, and actress Ebru Ceylan, his co-star in İklimler.
Ceylan learned photography at age 15, and developed an interest in film at 22. After graduating from Boğaziçi University with a BSc degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, he went on with his studies on cinema for two years at Mimar Sinan University.
Ceylan’s first short film Koza (Cocoon) was screened in the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. He received many awards with his debut feature Kasaba (Small Town). His third feature Uzak (Distant) received many awards including the Grand Jury Prize and the Best Actor Prize at Cannes, and was praised internationally. His 2006 film Iklimler (Climates) won the FIPRESCI Movie Critics’ Award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and received international praise by critics and experts. The film won 5 awards at the 2006 Antalya Golden Orange… read more
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David Churbuck
24Dec09
Three Monkeys, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's most recent film, is also his best written and dramatic -- foregoing the photographic magnificent of Climates and Distant for a taut, noirish script that paid homage to the prison tale of Dry Summer. Not to say there was not amazing cinematography, no one films a cloud-laden sky like Bilge, but the acting more than compensated. especially Hatice Aslan in the lead role of Hacer.
Boldizsar Csernak-Risko
26Oct09
Amazing film. Superb cast especially Hacar. Very believable physical performances..
Ryan Conrath
28Aug09
Found this fairly flat compared to distant and climates. Ceylan is a deft image-maker, but he seems to have lost sight of whatever it was that was fueling the riveting art speech of a movie like distant.
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Articles
Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
Image series: Composing Loneliness in "Three Monkeys"
By efe on April 26, 2009
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Three Monkeys is opening in New York City on May 1. Click here for playdates.
ONE MONKEY, TWO MONKEY…THREE MONKEYS
By Bilge Ebiri on April 26, 2009
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Three Monkeys is opening in New York City on May 1. Click here for playdates. Climates is playing for free in the US at The Auteurs through May 3. Ceylan's short film Cocoon is now showing at
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Reviews
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UNTITLED
By KEVGILL on December 2, 2009
Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has made his mark as one of contemporary cinema’s finest directors with films in which not very much happens. In Distant (Uzak), a despondent Istanbul photographer… read review
Untitled
By Ryan Borja on September 4, 2009
Nearly as good as his debut film, Uzak, but not quite. But this Turkish art-house film is Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s elegiac ode to the disintegration of our society’s basic unit – the family. But what… read review
Untitled
By M.G. Wood on April 26, 2009
Gorgeous photography. The young actor Rifat Sungar, who played Ismail was excellent; with the eyebrows and angst of Adrien Brody.
I was compelled all the way to the end; or rather until the… read review
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Three Monkeys and Climates playing on The Auteurs (free!)
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2 months ago
The legacy of Yilmaz Guney?
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9 months ago
Finally coming out
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10 months ago