''Three Monkeys'' ( tr, Üç Maymun) is a 2008 Turkish film directed by

Nuri Bilge Ceylan Nuri Bilge Ceylan (, born 26 January 1959) is a Turkish photographer, filmmaker and actor best known for the Palme d'Or winning ''Winter Sleep (film), Winter Sleep'' (2014). Early life Ceylan was born in Istanbul on 26 January 1959. His interes ...

. The film was Turkey's official submission for the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

at the

81st Academy Awards The 81st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2008 and took place on February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 ...

, and it made the January short-list but was not nominated.

Plot

A family is dislocated when small failings become extravagant lies. The film opens as a wealthy businessman, Servet, running a campaign for the upcoming election, is driving in his car alone and sleepy, struggling to keep his eyes open. Seconds later he hits and kills a pedestrian in the middle of the road. Servet panics when another car with a couple inside approaches. He sneaks away. Eyüp, a man living in a

slum A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...

at the

Yedikule Yedikule ( en, Seven Towers) is a neighborhood of Fatih, Istanbul in Turkey. It is named after the seven-towered Yedikule Fortress, which surrounds the neighborhood. Urbanized in the 16th century, the neighborhood became a hub for industrial and a ...

neighborhood in

İstanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, with his wife and only son, is the driver of Servet. He wakes up in the middle of the night with his cell phone ringing. It's his boss, telling Eyüp to meet him immediately. Shivering in shock, Servet explains the current events to his driver. His excuse is if the fatal accident comes out in press it would terminate his political career, so he proposes Eyüp to take over the penalty and stay in prison for a brief period of time in exchange for a lump sum payment upon his release, whilst still paying his salary to his family so they can get by. Eyüp accepts the deal. An unspecified time passes, summer arrives, and Eyüp's son İsmail fails to enter college again. His mother, Hacer, who works in the catering division of a factory, starts worrying about her son after unpleasant events, and tries to convince him to get a job. İsmail suggests driving children between home and school but of course they don't have any financial source for this kind of an enterprise. İsmail asks his mother to request an advance payment from Servet without consulting Eyüp. Hacer meets with Servet, in his office after the election (which he lost), and requests the money. After Hacer leaves the office and starts waiting for a bus at the stop Servet persuades Hacer to accept a lift from him back to her home. More unspecified time passes, and İsmail intends to visit his father. Things take a poor turn when he finds his mother having an affair with Servet. İsmail stands passive. After serving nine months in prison, Eyüp is released. He senses things are "a little peculiar" inside his home. Hacer is in love with Servet and insists on maintaining their affair. Servet disagrees. That night, Hacer and Eyüp are invited to the police station and informed that Servet has been murdered. Police officers interrogate the two and Eyüp finds out that Hacer was cheating on him. He denies knowing anything about it. İsmail confesses to his mother that he murdered Servet. Eyüp calms down when he pays a visit to a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

. Afterwards, Eyüp goes on to speak with a very poor man who works and sleeps inside a tea house in the neighborhood. Eyüp makes the same proposition to the poor man, Bayram, that Servet made to him: to claim the crime committed by his son.

Cast

Yavuz Bingöl Yavuz Bingöl (born 7 October 1964) is a Turkish folk music singer and actor. Early life Bingöl was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1964 to teacher Yılmaz Bingöl and folk singer Senem Akkaş (better known with her stage name Şahsenem Bacı), both ...

as Eyüp *

Hatice Aslan Hatice Aslan (born 20 February 1962) is a Turkish actress who starred in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's 2008 film '' Üç Maymun (The Three Monkeys)'', for which Ceylan won the best director award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Aslan was seen as a strong ...

as Hacer *Ahmet Rıfat Şungar as İsmail *Ercan Kesal as Servet *Cafer Köse as Bayram *Gürkan Aydın as the child

Reception

''Three Monkeys'' has received positive reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a "certified fresh" rating of 78%, based on 58 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Exploring the effects of a family's dealings with an underhanded politician, this crime drama avoids showing the violent outcomes of its characters' misdeeds, resulting in a lingeringly potent film." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 73 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

The film premiered in competition at the

2008 Cannes Film Festival The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2008. The President of the Official Jury was American actor and director Sean Penn. Twenty two films from fourteen countries were selected to compete for the ''Palme d'Or''. The awards ...

on May 16, where Ceylan won, ten days later, the Award for Best Director. It also won the Golden Anchor Competition Award at the

Haifa International Film Festival The Haifa International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place every autumn (between late September and late October), during the week-long holiday of Sukkot, in Haifa, Israel. History The festival was inaugurated in 1983 and w ...

. The film won best special effects award at the

Golden Orange Film Festival Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...

, as well as the Siyad award at the

International Eurasia Film Festival The 1st International Eurasia Film Festival ( tr, 1. Uluslararası Avrasya Film Festivali) was a film festival held in Antalya, Turkey, from 24 September to 1 October 2005. It was the first of four editions held in successive years. This inau ...

. At the Osian's Cinefan Film Festival the film won the Best Director Award, and at the "

Manaki Brothers The Manaki brothers ( rup, Frats Manachia), Yanaki and Milton ( and ), were Greek photography and cinema pioneers of the Balkan Peninsula and the Ottoman Empire. They were the first to bring a film camera and create a motion picture in the city ...

" Film Camera Festival it won Mosfilm Award and Special Mention. Ceylan received the award for Achievement in Directing at the

Asia Pacific Screen Awards The Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) is an international cultural initiative overseen by the Asia Pacific Screen Academy and headquartered in Australia. In order to realise UNESCO's goals of promoting and preserving the different cultures th ...

, where the film also received nominations for Best Feature Film and Achievement in Cinematography.

Awards and Festivals

* 2008 Cannes Film Festival Candidacy for Golden Palm in 61. Cannes Film Festival Cannes Best Director Award -Won- * Oscar Awards Last 9 for Best Foreign Language Film in 81st Academy Awards * Other Awards 2. Yeşilçam Awards * Best Movie -won- * Best Director -won- * Best Scenario -won- * Best Actress -won- * Best Actor * Best Supporting Actor * Best Director of Photography -won- * Young Talent Special Award -won- 41. Siyad Awards * Best Art Direction * Best Fiction -won- * Best Image Management * Best Scenario * Best Actor Performance * Best Actress Performance -won- * Best Supporting Actor -won- * Best Director -won- * Best Film Osian's Cinefan Film Festival * Best Director -won- Haifa Film Festival * Best Film (Golden Anchos) -won- Asia Pasific Screen Awards * Best Director -won- * Best Film * Best Image "Manaki Brothers" Film Camera Festival * Mosfilm Awards -won- * Special Mention -won-

References

External links

Official Site

Three Monkeys
(Zeitgeist Films) * *
Three Monkeys: A film review
{{Nuri Bilge Ceylan 2008 films Films directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan Films set in Istanbul Films set in Turkey 2000s Turkish-language films Turkish drama films