Making of The Wild Pear Tree

This is not a promotional behind-the-scenes reel. It is a three-part documentary running 390 minutes in total, roughly twice the length of The Wild Pear Tree itself. It was broadcast on Turkey's TRT 2. The first part concentrates on exteriors, the open-air portion of a shooting schedule that ran about fourteen weeks in western Anatolia. The second turns to interiors and to Sinan's long dialogue scenes with his mother and father. What you watch is Ceylan running a ten-minute conversation again and again, adjusting almost nothing visible each time. Cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki appears alongside Ceylan, and the actors Murat Cemcir, Doğu Demirkol, Hazar Ergüçlü and Bennu Yıldırımlar appear as themselves. Ceylan explains his own method aloud on set, which is the most valuable thing here. Who it is for: viewers who want to understand how a Ceylan film is built, and what patience costs in practical terms, and who can give it six and a half hours. Who it is not for: anyone who has not seen The Wild Pear Tree. The documentary assumes you know the film and works through it scene by scene.