Prompted by Ben Kenigsberg making it a Critic's Pick at the New York Times. Written and directed by Iranian/Canadian Alireza Khatami. Obviously shot in Turkey; IMDB says Ankara, which was somewhat familiar from the shots of mountain ranges and windy roads in previous movies set in Anatolia.
Taken literally there's not a lot going on: a forty-ish university professor who spent fourteen years in America has strained relations with his parents and eight-year younger wife that are further strained when his mother dies and his job (teaching comparative literature or translation or something) gets canned. His orchard/garden just out of town is too arid to produce much of anything and he can't get his wife pregnant; rectifications require illegalities. But of course we're supposed to be contemplating the metaphors of generational violence and so on that elevate the meaning of all those standard plot points. There's a bemusing David Lynch Lost Highway (1997) identity switcheroo.
Robert Daniels at Roger Ebert's venue: three-and-a-half stars. It may have been that the altered identity was morally corrupt but he was also more honest.
