After winning the Palme d’Or in 2014 for his heartbreaking “Winter Sleep,” Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan returned to Cannes this year with another sprawling drama, albeit one that offers a glimpse at the filmmaker’s more playful side. “The Wild Pear Tree” follows the fraught relationship between a father and son, aided by some surprising (and often charming) deviations into the more fantastical elements of life.

Per its official synopsis, “Sinan (Aydin Doğu Demirkol), an aspiring writer, returns home after university hoping to scrape together enough money to publish his first novel. He wanders the town encountering old flames and obstinate gatekeepers and finds his youthful ambition increasingly at odds with the deferred dreams of his gambling-addict father (Murat Cemcir). As his own fantasies mingle with reality, Sinan grapples with the people and the place that have made him who he is.”

In his Cannes review, IndieWire’s Eric Kohn...