Sinan is an aspiring young writer who has just finished college. Returning to his hometown of Çan, he sets about trying to find local funding to publish his debut manuscript, which he calls a "quirky auto-fiction meta-novel," but finds that the locals are uninterested. He also discovers that his eccentric father, Idris, has allowed his gambling addiction to disastrously reduce the family's fortune and stature. Worried about his career prospects and finding himself socially isolated in his rural hometown, Sinan wanders the countryside and engages in a series of testy conversations with various relatives and locals, including an established writer and two Imams who hold differing opinions about religion's place in the modern world. Eventually, disgusted by his father's degenerate gambling and suspecting him of stealing money, Sinan sells his father's beloved dog for the money to have his book published. He then leaves town for his required military service. When he returns, he finds that his father has abandoned his family, and is now living as a rural shepherd. The two reconnect in a friendly conversation where Idris reveals that he has given up his long-running quixotic attempt to dig a well on his arid property, and that he has read and enjoyed Sinan's book. In a surreal moment, it appears that Sinan has hung himself in the abandoned well, but the film then abruptly cuts to Idris awakening. Looking about for his absent son, he walks over to the well to find Sinan at the bottom, continuing to dig.
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan describes the project as being inspired by a father and son who were neighbors of his near Çanakkale, Turkey, where he grew up. The son, Akın Aksu, agreed to contribute to the screenplay, and also plays the character of Imam Veysel in the movie. The finished script is largely drawn from Aksu's own life and his two autobiographical novels, though Ceylan describes the film as being partly based on his relationship with his own father. The film's title comes from Aksu's short story The Loneliness of the Wild Pear Tree. Lead actor Aydın Doğu Demirkol had never acted in a film before, and Ceylan found him on Facebook. Ceylan described him as "...the smartest actor I’ve met to this day." The film was primarily shot on location in the city of Çanakkale and the town and region of Çan. The Trojan Horse on the Çanakkale waterfront is a prop from the 2004 filmTroy.
Reception
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94%, based on 78 reviews, and an average rating of 8.48/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Wild Pear Tree uses a young man's post-graduation experience to pose thoughtful, engaging questions about life in modern Turkey — and the rest of the world." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 86 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". It was one of the best-reviewed films to premier at Cannes in 2018.
