Three Monkeys is a 2008 Turkish drama-thriller from director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, made with production support from Italy and France, that studies a family choosing silence over truth.
What is Uc Maymun about?
A single lie sets off the story, and the family at its center bends its whole life around protecting it rather than admitting what actually happened. Each member picks a version of not-seeing, not-hearing, not-speaking that keeps the household intact on the surface, even as the cover-up asks for more than any of them expected to give. The film follows how far people will go to avoid hardship and consequence, and what a household starts to look like once its members have agreed, without ever saying so out loud, to stop asking questions.
About the cast
The cast is led by Yavuz Bingöl and Hatice Aslan as the parents holding the family together, with Ahmet Rıfat Şungar as their son and Ercan Kesal, Cafer Köse and Gürkan Aydin filling out the surrounding cast. Ceylan works with a small ensemble and long, patient scenes, letting the actors carry entire stretches of the film on posture and silence rather than dialogue.
Context & significance
Three Monkeys came from Nuri Bilge Ceylan at a point in his career when his films were already known internationally for their patience and visual restraint, and this one, a Turkey-Italy-France co-production, carried that reputation further into festival circuits abroad. It sits in the drama-thriller space without leaning on genre mechanics like chases or twists; the tension comes from watching people manage a secret rather than from anything overtly staged. At 109 minutes, it is a compact, deliberately paced film that rewards close attention to what characters choose not to say.
Watching Uc Maymun on Ktime
Three Monkeys is available to watch on K-Time with a free account login. The film streams without Persian dubbing or subtitles, in its original Turkish, so it plays best for viewers comfortable following the dialogue as delivered. K-Time's Persian-language interface makes it easy for Iranian diaspora audiences to find and queue up titles like this one alongside the rest of the catalogue.