TIFF BELL Lightbox - Yilmaz Guney

THE WAY HOME: The films of Yilmaz Guney
(Full review of his most successful film: YOL below!)

Organized by Erju Ackman in collaboration with the Güney Foundation and travelling to select film institutions in North America, this retrospective offers the rarest opportunity to encounter the body of work of Yilmaz Güney, the greatest star and most celebrated director of Turkish cinema.

Spending half his life incarcerated by successive Turkish military regimes for his leftist politics and support of Kurdish nationalism, Güney draws from myths, allegory, and melodrama to portray the beauty and despair of his homeland. Some highlights include his first international success Hope (1970), a searing social document often compared to Bicycle Thieves; the Sergio Leone-like The Hungry Wolves (1969), starring the director as a laconic hired gun who hunts bandits in the mountains of eastern Turkey; Elegy (1971), one of his most powerful studies of rural poverty and oppression; and Güney’s most celebrated film, directed by proxy from prison (footage was smuggled to Switzerland and edited in Paris), Yol (1982), a remarkable critique of political, religious, and sexual oppression that received the Palme d’Or and the International Critics Prize at Cannes.

The Way Home: The Films of Turkish Master Yilmaz Güney an eight film retrospective that showcases Güney’s extremely powerful, historically important, and incredibly rare works. The retrospective runs from January 26 to February 5.

YOL (Turkey/Switz/France 1982) ****
Directed by Yilmaz Guney and Serif Goren

If there was ever a harsh film made about a people or a country, YOL takes the limit.  It is no wonder the film got banned in its native Turkey till 1999 not to mention its director imprisoned for a substantial number of years.  In fact Guney directed YOL while in prison by proxy.

YOL went on the win the Cannes Palme d’Or with Guney receiving his prize while under bodyguards.  The film is a stunning yet disturbing portrait of Turkey in the aftermath of the 1980 Turkish coup d’état: its people and authorities as shown by the stories of 3 prisoners given a week’s home leave.

Guney intercuts the 3 stories.  It takes a while to recognize the lead characters in each story but once that is out of the way, the film is less confusing.

The first has Seyit Ali (Tarik Akan) returning home to find that his wife (Serif Sezer) has betrayed him and works as a prostitute. She was caught by her family and held captive for Seyit Ali to end her life in an honour killing. Though apparently determined at first, he changes his mind when his wife starts to freeze while traveling in the snow. Despite his efforts to keep her alive, he eventually fails. The segments of Seyit travelling in the cold ice and snow to his village and with his wife later on are the most harrowing and unforgettable scenes ever put on screen.  (I first saw this film in n1982 and these segments have never escaped me.) His wife’s death relieves Seyit Ali from family pressure and he is saved from justice since she freezes but he has an internal struggle and must return to jail.  This is the best of the 3 stories.

Mehmet Salih (Halil Ergun) has been arrested for his role in a heist with his brother-in-law, whom he abandoned as he was being shot by police. His in-laws want nothing to do with him, and he is finally forced to tell his wife Emine (Meral Orhonsay) the truth. Emine and Mehmet Salih decide to run away and get on a train. On the train, they get caught in the toilet while having long-awaited sex with each other. They are saved from an angry mob by the train’s officers and held in a cabin before being handed over to officials.  There, a young boy from Emine’s family who boarded the train shoots both Mehmet Salih and Emine.  What is interesting here is the sympathy the train officials have for the couple.  Guney shows here is that the tradition and inflexibility of common people (the ones on the train in this instance) that cause the problems in the country.

The last, shortest and least impactful story concerns Omer (Necmettin Çobanoğlu) returning to his village. Being a border village, it has a struggle with the army due to smuggling. Ömer visits and arranges to cross the border to escape prison. Though Ömer is clearly determined, he gives up after his brother is shot dead while smuggling. Through his brother’s death, Ömer has inherited the responsibilities of his brother’s wife and children as dictated by tradition. 

What is clear from the movie is the imprisonment of the three resulting from tradition and customs which are worse that the physical imprisonment on the island.  But YOL also demonstrates how a dedicated craftsman can have his story told to the world no matter how bad circumstance can be.  YOL is a real feat deserving of all the prizes it has won.

The retrospective runs from January 26 to February 5.

PUBLIC SCREENINGS

Hope (Umut)
dir. Yilmaz Guney | Turkey 1970 | 100 min. | 14A
Thursday, January 26 at 6:30 pm

The Herd (Suru)
dir. Zeki Okten | Turkey 1978-79 | 120 min. | 14A
Friday, January 27 at 6:30 pm

Yol (The Way)
dir. Serif Goren | Turkey 1982 | 111 min. | 14A
Saturday, January 28 6:30 pm

The Poor Ones (Zavallilar)
dirs. Yilmaz Guney & Atif Yilmaz | Turkey 1974 | 72 min. | 14A
Sunday, January 29 at 6:30 pm

Elegy (Ağit)
dir. Yilmaz Guney | Turkey 1971 | 80 min. | 14A
Thursday, February 2 at 6:30 pm

Bride of the Earth (Seyit Han)
dir. Yilmaz Guney | Turkey 1968 | 78 min. | 14A
Friday, February 3 at 6:30 pm

The Hungry Wolves (Ac kurtlar)
dir. Yilmaz Guney | Turkey 1969 | 88 min. | 14A
Saturday, February 4 at 7:00 pm

The Friend (Arkadas)
dir. Yilmaz Guney | Turkey 1974 | 100 min. | 14A
Sunday, February 5 6:30 pm