Winterschlaf

Aydın, a former actor, runs a small hotel in the mountains of Cappadocia. He sees himself as the intellectual head of the community, writes columns for the local newspaper and dreams of writing a history of Turkish theater. But beneath the surface of his seemingly orderly life, conflicts are simmering: his relationship with his much younger wife Nihal is characterized by estrangement, and there are also regular arguments with his sister Necla. When a young boy from an impoverished family of tenants smashes a window in Aydin's car, the hotelier's painstakingly maintained self-image is shaken, revealing the deep social rifts in the region.

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for this monumental epic. The film is in the tradition of great Russian literature, especially Chekhov's, and uses the barren, snow-covered landscape of Turkey as a mirror for the loneliness of its protagonists. With its long, philosophical dialogs, Winter Sleep is considered a milestone of modern world cinema.