About Dry Grasses

Released Feb 23

3h 17m

Drama

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List

92%

Tomatometer

61 Reviews

90%

Audience Score

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Nestled away in wintry East Anatolia, public-school art teacher Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu) yearns to leave the sleepy village for cosmopolitan Istanbul. Further disenchanted when he and Kenan (Musab Ekici), a colleague, come under public scrutiny, Samet fears circumstances will keep him in Anatolia and his dreams of a new life permanently out of reach. A silver lining is a budding relationship with Nuray (Merve Dizdar), a fellow teacher and firebrand who develops connections with both Samet and Kenan, forcing Samet to confront what he can't readily accept.

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Critics Consensus

About Dry Grasses keeps us warm with dark humor through its unhurried and verbose wintry meditation on the human condition.

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Christy Lemire

FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)

This would be a great double feature with The Teacher's Lounge (2023).

Mar 22, 2024

Full Review

Tim Grierson

Los Angeles Times

Even by Ceylan’s stringent standards, “About Dry Grasses” is a dour and enveloping affair, featuring one of his most complicated and, ultimately, despicable protagonists. That isn’t initially apparent, but it’s bracingly clear by the end.

Mar 6, 2024

Full Review

Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

Between’s Ceylan’s eye for faces, landscapes and spatial dynamics, and the first-rate work of cinematographers Kürsat Üresin and Çevahir Sahin, “About Dry Grasses” fills every widescreen frame with life.

Rated: 4/4

Mar 2, 2024

Full Review

Ben Nicholson

The Skinny

About Dry Grasses patiently follows the stilted flows and elliptical eddies of its characters’ lives to deepen our understanding of their discontent.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 22, 2024

Full Review

Ray Pride

Newcity

Darkly funny stories turn, his characters reveal more and more unexpected facets, through actions but also through ripening talk and richly suggestive ellipsis: Ceylan turns his pages with a novelist’s patience.

Rated: 10/10

Jul 4, 2024

Full Review

Hannah Brown

Jerusalem Post

The plot threads come together and then unravel as the story moves along slowly through its 197-minute running time... This movie wouldn’t have been harmed by a little script cutting, which might have sharpened the characters and made them more vivid.

Jun 27, 2024

Full Review

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Ayse

The subject , acting ,and wonderful landscape..Unlike Hollywood movies , it is filled with philosophy.. Nuri Bilge Ceylan is genius , when it comes to making great movies..

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/04/24

Full Review

Sahar N

A well-narrated story in which you will find two stories within it: one that you watch and the other that the director is communicating with you. You won't even realize it is a 3-hour and 20-minute long film. The film simply connects you to the under-the-skin feelings of the characters, and the acts are so smooth. Cinematography and costumes are very well done. You will be in another life and story when watching the film!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/03/24

Full Review

dave d

Deniz Celiloğlu (Samat) showcases a wide array of emotions in a gorgeous 3-hour plus extravaganza that could have been sliced by about 30-40 minutes. It is intentionally slow, but the build, while fascinating, didn't land as well as it could have. As a character study there are few better on film. It's a Turkish drama feature, but stick with it. There are long scenes of heavy dialogue and stretches of silence. Samat is hard to like which makes him totally compelling the way he is presented. It is by far perfect but as far as Turkish 140 minute movies go, it's up there as the best I've seen... and also the worst! Final Score: 6.8/10

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

05/25/24

Full Review

R Victor B

What a jumbled, seemingly endless, sophomoric mess this is! It seems to manage to put in every cliche, both in words and in subject, that are available, and that means a whole lot, since the director/writers had over 3 hours to fill. Talk, talk, talk. There are extraneous, time consuming and confusing side stories, e.g. the shopkeeper, the dog in the street. Sure, Samet provides cringe worthy actions at the start of the film, belying his otherwise caring person/favorite teacher persona, but the only reason his caddishness becomes the major feature is his action concerning the concealed love letter, an unconvincing deus ex machina.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/24

Full Review

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Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Director

Deniz Celiloglu

Samet

Merve Dizdar

Nuray

Musab Ekici

Kenan

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Screenwriter

Ebru Ceylan

Screenwriter

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About Dry Grasses: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Nestled away in wintry East Anatolia, public-school art teacher Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu) yearns to leave the sleepy village for cosmopolitan Istanbul. Further disenchanted when he and Kenan (Musab Ekici), a colleague, come under public scrutiny, Samet fears circumstances will keep him in Anatolia and his dreams of a new life permanently out of reach. A silver lining is a budding relationship with Nuray (Merve Dizdar), a fellow teacher and firebrand who develops connections with both Samet and Kenan, forcing Samet to confront what he can't readily accept.

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Producer: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Screenwriter: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan, Akin Aksu
Distributor: Sideshow / Janus Films
Production Co: Memento Films Production
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Turkish
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 23, 2024, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): May 21, 2024
Box Office (Gross USA): $118.7K
Runtime: 3h 17m

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