3 Questions
What did Yol expose in its movie?
The ubiquity of military control
What is the significance of the 4-second long vignette with the writing “Kürdistan”?
It caused controversy because it was not officially recognized by Turkey.
What was the response of the people to Yol - The Full Version?
It was met with negative critiques.
Study Notes
- Yılmaz Güney escaped from prison in the same way as some of the characters from his movie Yol wish.
- This movie about prisoners with a short-term leave permit, visiting their families, brings a lot of controversies in Turkey to the surface.
- One prisoner is forced to an honor killing, another’s brother is killed making him the widow’s new husband.
- Yol had a love-hate relationship with Turkey. Even though he showed his home country of Turkey in all its beauty, he also exposes political and social issues, such as the oppression of women, violence as an answer to social conflicts and the ubiquity of military control.
- Yol premiered at the Festival of Cannes in 1982 and won the Golden Palm (Festival de Cannes, 2018).
- After the big success there was a lack of time and money to reedit the movie. In its original state, there is a 4-second long vignette with the writing “Kürdistan”. This caused controversy, since Kurdistan (“Kürdistan” in Turkish) is not officially a recognized state, even though 19% of the Turkish population is Kurdish.
- Because of this and other political issues, Yol was banned in Turkey and only in the 1990s was a censored version approved in Turkey. The Kurdistan-vignette had been erased and even now the original version has not been broadcasted in Turkey, making Yol’s story about repressive Turkey still valid today.
- One year after the failed military putsch of 2016, a restored version of Yol premiered in Cannes, called Yol - The Full Version. This movie was less successful and caused negative critiques: “The structure has been changed, and with new voiceovers, it’s almost like the film edited by Yılmaz Güney in 1982 has been tampered with. Especially the removal of the “Kurdistan” vignette […] is surprising and suspicious”.
- To show todays relevance of this subject, I asked on my social media if somebody knows both Kurdish and Kurdish. Soon this private message came: “I know only Turkish, I am Turk. But let me ask something. Why do you spend your life with Kurdish and about this nonsense movies?” An old acquaintance of mine also wrote me: “Why Kurdish? I don’t understand the fascination of Kurds by Europeans, what you did is really heartbreaking.”
- Still today Kurds cannot be seen as welcome in society. The Turkish and Kurdish political context have to be understood to comprehend the different versions of Yol.
Explore the controversial aspects of Yol, a Turkish film that sheds light on political and social issues in Turkey. From its banned status to the portrayal of Kurdish identity, Yol continues to spark discussions about repression and societal dynamics in Turkey.
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