Try The Financial Review App on your Android Tablet  Do not show
this message again  Film | Slow, bleak, mesmeric  Share Links:
John McDonald  Mesmeric quality: there is nothing tragic about
this tale, it is merely bleak.  Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Once upon a time in Anatolia . . . a minute passed. And then
another minute passed, and another. Finally, after 2½ hours, the
film was over.      As the search drags on into the night the
group puts up at a nearby village, where the mayor entertains
them with a recital of local news and tries to enlist their aid
in his campaign to build a morgue.  There is a power blackout,
but as the men sit in darkness they are jolted back to life by
the sudden appearance of the mayor’s beautiful daughter framed
by candlelight.   This moment of revelation is soon over, but it
lingers with them the next day as they drive to the site of a
shallow grave.    At one point during the search someone shakes
a tree and an apple falls to the ground and rolls down a hill.
The camera fo