ÜÇ MAYMUN

On the surface, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ]]>Three Monkeys]]> is only very superficially about incarceration, in that the story is quickly kick-started when a local politician facing elections persuades his driver to take the rap for him after the former knocks over a man with his car; in return he will pay his employee’s salary to his teenage son, and hand over a large lump sum when he emerges from prison after six months or so. But if we actually see only a couple of prison-set scenes, when the son visits his father, that does not mean that imprisonment is not a central, almost Dostoievskian metaphor for what happens to the driver, his wife and son, and the the politician. For that lie told to the cops is merely the first – and indeed the fount – of many more deceits that shape the increasingly twisted and dangerous interactions between the four protagonists.
]]>Three Monkeys]]> is arguably Nuri Bilge Celan’s most ambitious film. It has the dry humour,
assured pacing, astute psychological insights and sharp sense of moral and dramatic
irony that has been conspicuous in all his work; if you thought Ceylan’s photographer’s
eye produced stunning images in ]]>Climates, Three Monkeys]]> pushes the envelope
still further. (Geoff Andrew)