A group of men drive around at night in the rural area of Keskin looking for the buried body of murder victim Yasar Toprak.

The perpetrator Kenan recalls burying him near a water fountain with his mentally challenged brother, but the fact that he was drunk during it, the lack of sunlight, and the repetitive landscapes make it difficult for him to find.

As the night goes on, prosecutor Nusret tells doctor Cemal about a case he was involved in where a woman correctly informed her husband of her date of death months in advance shortly after giving birth to their child.

The group stops at a nearby village, where the mayor asks Nusret to get Keskin to help fund a morgue, as his town is mostly populated by the elderly and their children want to see their bodies.

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan grew up in a small town similar to the one in the film in terms of mentality and hierarchy, and says he feels a close connection to the characters depicted.

One of Ceylan's co-writers was an actual doctor, and, in order to attain his license, had been required to work for two years in the town where the plot is set.

When writing the screenplay, the filmmakers tried to be as realistic as possible, and the main aim was to portray the special atmosphere, which had left a strong impression on the doctor.

The website's critical consensus states: "Cerebral and thrilling, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a meditative procedural that maintains feverish intensity throughout its unhurried runtime".

Calhoun compared the film to the director's previous works and noted how it to a lesser extent follows genre conventions: "Displaying a new interest in words and story (albeit of the most elusive kind), Once Upon A Time in Anatolia feels like a change of direction for Ceylan and may disappoint those who were especially attracted to the urbane melancholia of Uzak and Climates.