Yol

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.

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.

This excellent movie shows how people in their life are the prisoner of their situation. The live in a world and society that expects them things to do and behave, and the do and behave as expected, even if they don't feel happy with it, or hurts them. They have to. This is a lesson for myself, and life as I experience it. Yhis is dramatically illustrated in the movie in the scene in which the husband is forcing his wife to go with him through the mountains, through the snow. Which has a bad ending. I remember this scene even more than 20 years after I saw it ever. This 'being prisoner of your situation' is not specific for the Turkish or any culture. I think it is typical for humans in general. Look around and you will see.

I am completing a thesis on Turkish cinema. I have seen many Turkish films, and I think this is definitely one of the five best and certainly the best one of its' era though the underrated "Polizei" which "Yol"'s co-director Serif Goren helmed is right up there. "Yol" is amazing for many reasons. I have heard some amazing Hollywood back stories of how films like "MASH" and "Apocalypse Now" were hellish shoots. But, none of them matches what the filmmakers did on this project. "Yol" was secretly filmed, and the entire cast, which included box office icon Tarik Akan risked being blacklisted. The film was subsequently banned in Turkey until 1992, and it was not shown theatrically there until 1999. It is a scathing indictment of political and social oppression in Turkey in the early 1980s. Symbolism is used throughout the film, with birds representing freedom, horses representing virtue, and women representing oppression. Many Westerneners have labeled Yilmaz Guney, Turkey's best known director who envisioned "Yol" from his prison and then while in exile, a champion of feminist ideals. But, if one sees some of his earlier film like "Canli Hedef/Live Target" they might be in for a surprise (that film features an off-camera rape of a 10-year old girl). I like Guney's films but I agree with Serif Goren's assessment that his contributions to "Yol" were completely overlooked. Goren proved to be a capable director in his own right, and his film "10 Kadin/10 Women" is perhaps the essential film for expressing ideals which are sympathetic to feminism- a movement that I sympathize with in terms of Turkey, but am neutral towards in the West. "Yol" also deals with Kurdish suppression. One of the more poignant moments in the film comes when Halil Ergun's character comes to back to his hometown Diyarbakir (in Eastern Turkey) on the train during his prison leave. He comments how strange it is to be back home. The central theme of the film is that the oppressive elements of prison life are evident just as much on the outside. Personally, I think Turkey has made significant progress in recent years. It is a shame that except for Michael Moore, Barbara Kopple, and Tim Robbins, very few American film makers take these kinds of risks that Guney and Goren did with "Yol." In my view, the more recent Turkish film "Distant" has surpassed "Yol" as the best Turkish film ever made, but this is still a magnificent artistic achievement which can be merited as a classic in terms of international cinema.