'Bal'

As Hollywood films become ever more breathless — with special effects sidelining nearly all plot and character development, and digital-editing abuse leading to few shots that last beyond a second — art cinema has moved just as extremely in the opposite direction, with slow, meticulous pacing; long, steady shots where seemingly nothing happens; and a meditative focus on the mundane, punctuated by fleeting moments of emotion, or maybe just the change of light as afternoon turns to evening.

"Bal," which won the Golden Lion award at the Berlin Film Festival, is one such example of the recent (and mostly festival-driven) boom in what is known as "slow cinema", a healthy, fiber-rich alternative to the empty calories of Hollywood fast food. It is epitomized by directors such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Béla Tarr and Carlos Reygadas, although Gus Van Sant's dabbling in the form (with "Last Days" and "Gerry") might be better known locally.

"Bal," which means "honey" in Turkish, follows a young boy named Yusuf (Bora Altas) who lives on the edge of a forest in a thinly populated region of eastern Turkey. He hikes to school every day, where he is eager but inept at reading, suffering from a stutter when called on.