This award-winning Turkish film is an affecting tale about two cousins.

Middle-aged photographer Mahmut (Muzaffer Ozdemir) lives in Istanbul. He is going through a difficult divorce - he still loves his wife - and is very set in his ways. His younger cousin Yusuf (Emin Toprak) is in his thirties. Unable to find work at home, he comes to live with Mahmut, only to discovers that life in the big city is no easier. Jobs are just as hard to come by and he's living with a cousin, who is fussy, anti-social and even distrusting. The joy of the film is watching how they interact. You get a real feel for their difficulties.

Uzak won the Grand Prix at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and a justified Best Actor award, given to both players, which had particular poignancy, as Toprak died in a car crash shortly after the film was completed, and his award was presented posthumously. Both actors give excellent performances, Toprak slightly more noticably, as his character, the luckless younger cousin, is the most sympathetic.

Where the film truly succeeds is in its depiction of the grim facts of life, with its longing for something better and desire to escape the daily monotony. Both men look at women, wishing they could make a first move, lacking the confidence to say what they feel.

It may not sound like a barrel of laughs, but its sense of realism is second-to-none and the build-up of tension between the two men is beautifully handled.

One hopes Uzak will find decent sized audiences. It deserves to.