Sinan (Aydin Doğu Demirkol), a wannabe writer who oscillates between the coastal tourist city of Çanakkale and his nearby home village, is at loose ends. He has a "quirky meta novel" that he is trying to promote, but, at the same time, he is considering staying in the village of his birth and taking a position as a teacher, a job his genial father (a mesmerising Murat Cemcir) has seemingly excelled at. While home on a visit, Sinan discovers that his father is not what he seems: he has a gambling addiction that has brought the family to the brink of financial ruin. Add to that the news that an old flame is soon to be married and Sinan comes to realise he is at a crossroads: decisions he makes now may affect his life in irreversible ways…

"Sensual and lyrical, tremendously well acted, heavy in visual and verbal metaphor, and so ablaze with pastoral beauty that the hillsides and forests seem to glow with their own amber light… Ceylan… gives the most gently naturalistic scenes the weight and grain of visions. The word visionary has been flogged by the film business to the point of redundancy, but with The Wild Pear Tree, Ceylan reminds us he has earned every letter of it." – ROBBIE COLLIN, DAILY TELEGRAPH