Dedicated to Chekhov and with shades of "The Cherry Orchard", Nuri Bilge Ceylan's second feature builds to a moving and satisfying climax as the viewer is enveloped in the landscape and people linking the filmmaker to his childhood. The kaleidoscope of lyrical images forms a meditation on generational conflicts, social change, and loss of innocence. A filmmaker from Istanbul returns to where he grew up to make a film about his family and friends. In simply told stories of real people's very real preoccupations and dreams - a boy wants a musical watch, a young man has ambitions to leave the factory and live in the city, an old man struggles to save the magnificent trees on his land - the director's feeling for family and landscape is expressed in exquisite imagery of great emotional power and impact.

Turkey, 2000. 117 min.