Sideshow, Janus Films Wins Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cannes Competition Title ‘About Dry Grasses’ for US (Exclusive)

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired US rights to Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cannes competition film Speaking of dried herbssecuring Turkish drama from Playtime sales group.

The film stars Deniz Celiloglu as a young art teacher, sent to a remote Anatolian village for his last year of compulsory national service, overcome with anguish and a sense of hopelessness about the future. An encounter with Nuray, another teacher, played by Merve Dizdar, offers a chance for an escape. Dizdar won the Best Actress award at Cannes this year for her portrayal.

Sideshow and Janus Films plan to tour Speaking of dried herbs through the fall film festivals before releasing the film theatrically in the United States. Distributors have taken a similar approach with Cannes joint takeover in 2021, Ryusuke Hamaguchi Drive my car, another slow-burning drama, which eventually earned four Oscar nominations and one win, for Best International Film. Janus also earned an Oscar nomination with the film chosen at Cannes last year, EO by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski.

Produced by Ceylan’s NBC Film together with France’s Memento Production and Germany’s Komplizen Film Production, Speaking of dried herbs was co-written by Akin Aksu, Ebru Ceylan and Nuri Bilge Ceylan and co-starred Musab Ekici and Eve Bagci.

“This is truly a great cinema in every way. Nuri Bilge Ceylan has made an exciting, playful and visually stunning film that seeks to make sense of the world we now live in,” Sideshow and Janus Films said in a statement. “We are honored to be working with him for the first time and are so thrilled that Merve Dizdar has been recognized by the judging panel for her phenomenal performance. We can’t wait to bring her, Denis Celiloglu, Musab Ekici, the rest of the stellar cast and Ceylan’s ecstatic vision to theaters across the United States.” .