Yol

The artistry of this movie is astonishing in virtually every aspect of its filmmaking. What makes that all the more remarkable is that the footage was all shot by the assistant director in Turkey then taken to Switzerland for Yilmaz Güney (a brilliant writer/director who had to leave Turkey to escape persecution and imprisonment, mostly because of his empathy for the plight of the Kurdish people under Turkish rule) to edit and dub. The cinematography is colorful, rich and varied. The musical sound track is beautiful and well-integrated. The various subplots seem to echo and build on each other. Somehow, while making the grim realities of modern Turkey all too evident, this film also left me with a feeling of the indomitability of those who struggle for freedom.

Yol has a very special place in Turkish cinema.It is a masterpiece in my opinion.What makes Yol different from other Turkish films.The most important reason is that it comes from its own culture.It doesn't try to imitate American films or some others.It has its own way.This is really very important in building a film.When Turkish directors catch this point like Yýlmaz Güney I believe very good Turkish films will exist in the future.

Yusuf (Tuncay Akça) wants after a long time, to find a woman, but at the first military roadblock, he is taken into custody having lost his papers. His journey is over as it will take several days to verify who he is.

Seyit (Tarik Akan) looking forward to his wife and son. But arriving home he learns that his wife was unfaithful to him and she was subsequently banished from the family. She is held in a dungeon and tradition demands that he kills her.

Mehmet (Halil Ergün) is facing the vendetta, since by his fault his wife's brother died. Her family is furious that he wants to take his wife and children to flee with them.

Ömer (Necmettin Çobanoglu) arrives in his native Kurdish village and sees the military engaged in a policy to kill everyone who does not obey.

Meviat (Hikmet Çelik) takes the place of his deceased brother in the family, but it quickly becomes clear to him that the supposed freedom hardly differs by religious and tradition-bound pressure of a prison.

All have dreams of what they will do in their short freedom, but those dreams are quickly dashed. They find that those who are not in a concrete prison are in a prison made by social tradition and by the government. The only freedom available in Turkey at this time is death.

Five prisoners are given permission to visit their homes, and they get on their ways. Once out, we discover that we all live in a big prison, on endless roads which start and seem not to end. All roads end. Eventually. Absolutely harsh, touching, fierce, itching and scratching, disturbing movie about reality. A must see for those who have their own cliché definitons of how a "road movie" must be like.

Turkey is officially the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, along with Israel. But "Yol" shows that regardless of Turkey's official classification, it does have political prisoners. In this case, five of them are given a leave so that they can visit their families. While on their leaves, they (and the audience) get to see the realities of life. They may have been released from prison, but there are some metaphoric prisons that we can never escape, no matter how free we consider ourselves.

It was interesting that Yilmaz Guney managed to make this movie from jail. He did a very good job here.