Aydin, a former actor, runs a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal with whom he has a stormy relationship and his sister Necla who is suffering from her recent divorce. In winter as the snow begins to fall, the hotel turns into a shelter but also an inescapable place that fuels their animosities...

Since I saw Uzak (Distant, his first film) years ago and enjoyed it immensely, I've made a point of seeing every film Nuri Bilge Ceylan makes. Unfortunately, his esteem in my mind was gradually fading while others, like the Russian Andrey Zvyagintsev's were rising, his Leviathan is an excellent film. With Winter Sleep, though, Ceylan has made a masterpiece- easily his finest film, and I am in awe of his talent. To make a film that is a character study of a small hotel owner's life at its twilight into such a profound meditation on so many themes...pure genius! And to learn that this movie didn't get nominated for an Academy Award...fortunately the French awarded it top prize at Cannes. It's better than Ida and Leviathan (though Leviathan is a powerful, important film). Extremely well acted; beautifully filmed. The power, though, is in the dialogues...rare the emotional and intellectual intelligence on display here. An absolute must-see for fans of art-house foreign language cinema.