About Dry Grasses, the latest film from Nuri Bilge Ceylan that played in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, was submitted by Turkey on Friday to represent the country in the Oscar International Feature Oscar race.
About Dry Grasses centers on a young art teacher who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in. An encounter with Nuray, herself a teacher, could be the key to overcoming his angst.
Merve Dizdar, who played Nuray, won the Best Actress prize at Cannes for her performance in the film, which clocked in at 3 hours, 17 minutes.
The film, penned by Akin Aksu, Ebru Ceylan and Nuri Bilge Ceylan and hailing from NBC Film, Memento Production and Komplizen Film Production, is set to make its North American premiere at the now-underway Toronto Film Festival. It hits the New York Film Festival next month before Sideshow and Janus Films release it in U.S. theaters.