SYNOPSIS
Yol - The Full Version (2017) honors what the great Turkish-Kurdish actor, author, director and producer Yılmaz Güney wasn’t free to complete during his lifetime. It presents on the screen the content of the script that Yılmaz Güney wrote in prison. Yol - The Full Version recounts, as in Yılmaz Güney’s original script, six, rather than five stories about Turkish and Kurdish prisoners. Each of them attempts to get his life back on track during a week’s leave from prison. For 35 years, the Golden Palm winner Yol (1982) has moved audiences around the world. Yol - The Full Version is a piece of Turkish-Kurdish film history that is more contemporary than ever. The work is a timeless portrait of an archaic society whose concepts of honor and moral compass are the downfall of men and women alike. – Thanks to intense research, film material that was thought lost was found, digitized and edited according to Yılmaz Güney’s original editing plan. Image and sound have been accurately restored to their authentic condition. Turkey’s most important film with its topics more contemporary than ever was finally restored and completed for the occasion of Yılmaz Güney’s 80th birthday.
Awards
Palme d'Or, FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention | Cannes IFF, France, 1982
Top Foreign Films | National Board of Review, USA, 1982
Critics Award - Best Foreign Film | French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, France, 1983
ALFS Award - Foreign Language Film of the Year | London Critics Circle Film Awards, UK, 1984
Special Award | Turkish Film Critics Association Awards, Turkey, 1999
CAST & CREW
Yılmaz Güney
Director
Producer(s)
Donat F. Keusch
Script
Yilmaz Güney
Director of Photography
Erdoğan Engin
Music by
Zülfü Livaneli
Sound
Dominik Schleier, Detlef A. Schito
Edit
Yilmaz Güney, Elisabeth Waelchli, Peter R. Adam, Tobias Frühmorgen
Cast
Tarik Akan, Halil Ergün, Necmettin Çobanoğlu, Şerif Sezer, Meral Orhonsoy, Güngör Bayrak
Production company(ies)
DFK Films LLC (2017), Cactus Film LTD (1982)
Yılmaz Güney
(1937-1984) An ethnic Kurd, Guney, born in Yenice, Adana Province, was Turkey's most popular actor before he became a director. As his films got more political, he came under the scrutiny of Turkish authorities and was jailed several times for various political offenses. In the late 1970s he was convicted, in a very controversial trial, of murder and received a long prison sentence. After escaping from prison in 1981 and fleeing to France, Güney was greeted at the Cannes FF with a Palme d'Or for The Road (1982), directed by Güney’s assistant Şerif Gören.
Filmography
Horse, Woman and Gun (1966), Bana kursun islemez (1967), Seyyit Han: Bride of the Earth (1968), Nuri the Flea (1968), The Hungry Wolves (1969), Bir çirkin adam (1969), Private Osman (1970), Live Target (1970), Hope (1970), The Father (1971), Yarin son gundur (1971), The Hopeless Ones (1971), Ibret (1971), Pain (1971), Elegy (1972), Friend (1974), Anxiety (1974), The Poor (1975), The Road (1982), The Wall (1983).
Şerif Gören
Director
Şerif Gören
Born 1944. Gören, born in Xanthi, Greece, started his film career as an editor, and then continued as an assistant director to Yılmaz Güney. He and Güney started directing The Anxiety in 1974, in the beginning of which Güney was arrested and sent to prison. Gören continued directing the film, which makes it the first film directed by him. The Anxiety was a successful movie which won six awards at the 12th Antalya FF in 1975 including Best National Film and Best National Director. He directed more than thirty films in a decade. His activities also brought some trouble. As he served as the chairman of the Film Directors Association during 1979-1980, he got arrested in the aftermath of the 1980 military coup. After his release he started directing The Road in 1981. Aside from important movies under his own signature, he is also the winner of the Palme d'Or in Cannes FF in 1982 for the film The Road, which he had directed on behalf of Yılmaz Güney, who at the time was serving a prison sentence.
Filmography
Hope (1970), The Anxiety (1974), The Bridge (1975), The Earthquake (1976), Two Friends (1976), Taxi Driver (1976), İstasyon (1977), The River (1977), Istasyon (1977), Evlidir Ne Yapsa Yeridir (1978), Derdim Dünyadan Büyük (1978), Gelincik (1978), Almanya, Acı Vatan (1979), Aşkı Ben mi Yarattım? (1979), Kır Gönlünün Zincirini (1980), Feryada Gücüm Yok (1981), Herhangi Bir Kadın (1981), Yılanı Öldürseler (1981), The Road (on behalf of Yılmaz Güney, 1982), Alişan (1982), Tomruk (1982), Derman (1983), Güneşin Tutulduğu Gün (1983), The Escape (1984), While the Sun Rises (1984), The Frogs (1985), Adam and Eve (1986), The Blood (1986), Ten Women (1987), Polizei (1988), Abuk Sabuk Bir Film (1990), The American (1993), Ah Istanbul (2006).
