An epic and rigorous tale of a night and day in a murder investigation, Once Upon A Time In Anatolia is a beautifully photographed crime drama about police and prosecutors locating a buried body through one long night in the Anatolian steppes. In the short prologue three men are drinking and talking. Then a convoy of cars is travelling around the countryside at night as one of the men seen earlier is trying to remember where a body was buried. After several false leads and a rest in a remote village, the body is finally discovered early the next morning. In the course of the long investigation the characters and hidden thoughts of the main protagonists are gradually themselves exhumed.

Winner of Achievement in Directing and Achievement in Cinematography and the Jury Grand Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Best director at the Dublin International Film Festival and Grand Prize of the Jury for Best Film at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, it was described by Philip French in The Observer as "a carefully controlled masterpiece" and by Sight & Sound as an "extraordinary tour de force."

Note that this film runs for 150 minutes and will thus finish later than other films in this season.