Winter Sleep

A closer look at the story

Aydın, a retired stage actor, runs a small hotel in Cappadocia that he inherited from his father. He fills his days writing columns for a local newspaper and sketching plans for a history of the theatre that he has long meant to begin. As winter settles in and the hotel grows quiet, the tensions in his relationships with his young wife Nihal and his sister Necla, who moved in after her divorce, rise steadily to the surface. Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who co-wrote it with Ebru Ceylan, the 196-minute 2014 film stars Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen and Demet Akbağ in a patient drama about conscience, pride and intimacy.