The Wild Pear Tree (2018)
Movie · 2018 · Drama · 3h 8m · TR
Curator score: 9.5/10 (30.7K ratings)
All these small-minded, bigoted people like peas in a pod.
Overview
Fresh out of university, a Turkish young man with literary aspirations returns to his home village and starts scraping together money to publish his book. While trying to reconnect with his old friends and environment; his uncertainty, existential struggle and his father’s gambling addiction bring him grave difficulties.
Ratings
- Curator score: 9.5/10
- IMDb: 8.0/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
- Metacritic: 86
- TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Production
Zeynofilm, Memento Production, Detailfilm, ARTE France Cinéma, RFF International, Sisters and Brother Mitevski
Cast
Doğu Demirkol, Murat Cemcir, Bennu Yıldırımlar, Hazar Ergüçlü, Serkan Keskin, Tamer Levent, Akın Aksu, Ahmet Rıfat Şungar, Kubilay Tunçer, Öner Erkan, Özay Fecht, Kadir Çermik, Ercüment Balakoğlu, Sencar Sağdıç, Asena Keskinci, Abdurrahman Tutar, Salih Ünal
Curator Review
Verdict
A demanding, richly observed coming-of-age drama that blends literary ambition, family conflict, and existential frustration into a patient but rewarding portrait of a young man at odds with his home, his ideals, and himself.
Best for
- Viewers who like slow-burn character studies
- Fans of philosophical, dialogue-driven dramas
- People drawn to family tension and generational conflict
- Audiences who appreciate long, novelistic films with strong sense of place
Skip if
- You want a fast-moving plot
- You dislike introspective or argumentative protagonists
- You prefer concise films under two hours
- You need constant narrative payoff or conventional emotional catharsis
Overview
The Wild Pear Tree is one of those films that seems to expand as it goes, turning a simple homecoming story into a layered study of pride, disappointment, and self-mythology. Nuri Bilge Ceylan uses the landscape, the silences, and the long conversations to make the village feel both intimate and suffocating, as if the place itself is part of the argument. The result is patient, exacting, and often funny in a dry, bruised way.
Worth noting
What makes it especially strong is how unsparing it is about its central character. Sinan is intelligent, restless, and often insufferable, but the film never reduces him to a joke or a lesson. Instead, it lets his ambitions, resentments, and inherited burdens collide until the movie becomes less about whether he will succeed than about what kind of person he is becoming.
Bottom line
This is a film for viewers who enjoy cinema that thinks in chapters, digressions, and echoes. It can feel sprawling and stubborn, but that stubbornness is part of its power: the movie keeps returning to the same emotional knots until they finally feel earned rather than explained.
Top Letterboxd reviews
chungkingchina (5★) · 476 likes
filmi bitirdikten hemen sonra filme adını veren ahlat ağacı ile ilgili bir bilgi öğrendim ve bu bilginin geçtiği yorum çok dikkatimi çekti: ahlat ağacı diğer ağaç türlerinin beğenmediği ve dolayısıyla yaşamadığı yerlerde kendi başına yalnız yaşar. topluma ve yaşadığı çevreye uyum sağlayamamış ve bu yüzden de yalnızlığa itilmiş bir insan da bu sebepten ahlat ağacına benzer. film boyunca hiçbir yere aidiyet taşıyamıyor olan, yaşadığı hayattan ve çevresinden ahlat ağacı’nın meyvesi gibi buruk kekremsi bir tat alan ve bu tadı kendinden öteleyip “bezelye taneleri… more filmi bitirdikten hemen sonra filme adını veren ahlat ağacı ile ilgili bir bilgi öğrendim ve bu bilginin geçtiği yorum çok dikkatimi çekti: ahlat ağacı diğer ağaç türlerinin beğenmediği ve dolayısıyla yaşamadığı yerlerde kendi başına yalnız yaşar. topluma ve yaşadığı çevreye uyum sağlayamamış ve bu yüzden de yalnızlığa itilmiş bir insan da bu sebepten ahlat ağacına benzer. film boyunca hiçbir yere aidiyet taşıyamıyor olan, yaşadığı hayattan ve çevresinden ahlat ağacı’nın meyvesi gibi buruk kekremsi bir tat alan ve bu tadı kendinden öteleyip “bezelye taneleri… more
Arda Yeşildağ (4.5★) · 288 likes
"neymiş, dünyada onu suçlamayan tek ama tek canlı oymuş." ahlat ağacı, öfkeli bir film. ceylan'ın önceki filmlerini kuşatan estetik kaygılar veya varoluşçu gayelerden daha uzakta bir yapıt tümüyle. toplumunu ve özellikle de kendisini önceki yapımlarına göre çok daha iyi tanıyıp benimsemiş bir auteur'un işi: daha zor, daha katmanlı ve kesinlikle tekrar izlenmeyi talep eden bir yolculuk. 3 saatlik süresi olan bir film için kesinlikle fazla talepkar olduğu aşikar. ama değiyor, gerçekten değiyor. roman gibi bir havaya sahip olmasından kaynaklı bu… more "neymiş, dünyada onu suçlamayan tek ama tek canlı oymuş." ahlat ağacı, öfkeli bir film. ceylan'ın önceki filmlerini kuşatan estetik kaygılar veya varoluşçu gayelerden daha uzakta bir yapıt tümüyle. toplumunu ve özellikle de kendisini önceki yapımlarına göre çok daha iyi tanıyıp benimsemiş bir auteur'un işi: daha zor, daha katmanlı ve kesinlikle tekrar izlenmeyi talep eden bir yolculuk. 3 saatlik süresi olan bir film için kesinlikle fazla talepkar olduğu aşikar. ama değiyor, gerçekten değiyor. roman gibi bir havaya sahip olmasından kaynaklı bu… more
Darren Carver-Balsiger (4★) · 278 likes
I saw this at Leeds International Film Festival 2018. Whilst The Wild Pear Tree is a bit too sluggish for its first two-thirds, it really becomes great with its final hour. The Wild Pear Tree is a family drama of problematic people bringing different problems to their little world. The lead character is arrogant, the ultimate thinking man, refusing to understand how others define their lives with emotion. He wants to escape his world but ends up writing about it,… more
Eli Hayes (3.5★) · 158 likes
"Most of the movies are working like, 'Information, cut, information, cut, information, cut' and for them the information is just the story. For me, a lot of things [are] information - I try to involve, to the movie, the time, the space, and a lot of other things - which is a part of our life but not connecting directly to the story-telling. And I'm working in the same way - 'information, cut, information, cut,' but for me the information… more "Most of the movies are working like, 'Information, cut, information, cut, information, cut' and for them the information is just the story. For me, a lot of things [are] information - I try to involve, to the movie, the time, the space, and a lot of other things - which is a part of our life but not connecting directly to the story-telling. And I'm working in the same way - 'information, cut, information, cut,' but for me the information… more
Haroon Paul (5★) · 134 likes
I've forgotten most of it, but even forgetting has its appeal. Ceyaln unfolds The Wild Pear Tree in the most pastoral of splendors like most of his films, it is beautiful from inside out. He presents us with a symbol of truths that are hidden from the eye and the mind. The Wild Pear Tree portrays a story upfront about dreams, dead, alive and resurrected from generation to generation. The strife between generations take the center stage and around this… more
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Topics
slow cinema, philosophical drama, Turkish cinema, coming-of-age, family tension, existential, literary, provincial life, character study, novelistic