Third World/Turkey

Yol (1982) by Guney

Yol (Turkish for “The Road” or “The Way”) is a 1982 Turkish film directed by Yılmaz Güney. It is a portrait of Turkey in the aftermath of the 1980 Turkish coup d’état and tells the story of several prisoners on a brief leave from a maximum-security prison. The movie demonstrates that all the people in the story are prisoners, as much of their own minds and value systems as of the state, which is run by a right-wing military junta.

Seyit Ali travels to his home and finds that his wife has betrayed him with another man. His family has found her, tied her to the back of the house and left her there for eight months, giving her only bread and water–not allowing her even to wash. They are waiting for Seyit to return when he is expected to kill his wife in retribution—perceived as an “honor killing.” He still loves his wife, yet he is torn between pity and hatred, between the demons of social convention and his private anguish… He decides instead to “let God kill her,” and in an agonizing trek across a vast snow-covered pass, he and their son, followed by the flimsily attired, exhausted wife, trudge through the freezing terrain.”

The screenplay was written by Güney, but directed by his assistant Şerif Gören, who strictly followed Güney’s instructions, as Güney was in prison at the time serving an eighteen year sentence at hard labor. When Güney escaped from prison, he took the negatives of the film to Switzerland and edited it in Paris. As a result, the film was selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 55th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. The film has caused much controversy in Turkey and was banned until 1999 due to Yılmaz Güney’s involvement rather than its content. Guney continued to work underground until his untimely death at the age of forty-seven.

WATCH:  Yol  Trailer

WATCH: Yol Clip of snow crossing ( no English subtitles, but you understand what’s going on … watch from 1:20:00 – 1:30:00)

USSR and Eastern Europe

Those of you who took Film History I may recall the brief international prominence of the Russian Formalists of the 1920s which ended with Stalin’s declaring the makers of these films to be guilty of “formalism” — emphasizing style over content. This ushered in the simplistic films of 1930’s Socialist Realism. One of the main requirements of the movement was to show life, not as it was, but to create a combine information about real trends and the wishful thinking of the bosses. The resulting films portrayed a naïve enthusiasm and emphasized the official dream of the total renewal of society–the ideal modes of behavior and thought. Thus, the protagonists were young and politically enthusiastic (if there were old people appeared they were only portrayed as symbols of wisdom and revolutionary tradition). The film industry churned out radiant comedies in which young, honest, romantic characters easily settled trifling misunderstandings and all the characters were committed to collectivism. Sometime referred to as ‘boy loves tractor’ films, they were meant to provide viewers models to emulate.

While the first half of the 1980s was still dominated by the conservative, old-style values of the Brezhnev era, by 1985 new President Mikhail Gorbachev ushered in a regime in which there was no longer an official party line, and in fact any form of “routine thinking” (i.e., ideological conformity) was discouraged. This resulted in two revolutionary political developments–glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). This “new Model” represented a long-term commitment to the ideal of pluralism and artistic freedom—freedom to criticize, to speak frankly. As a gesture of good faith, the restructured film industry released of bevy of suppressed movies, some of them twenty years old, which had been shelved by previous regimes because they were ideologically “incorrect.”

The resulting new films suggested a land of disenchanted, cynical young people who have lost their desire in doing anything useful but instead are portrayed as gang members, drug addicts, and sexually promiscuous heathens. One of the first of such films to be released was the very successful Little Vera (1988) which focuses on a rebellious twenty-year-old girl who listens to new wave music, dresses provocatively, and is sexually promiscuous (the film featuring graphically portrayed sex).

WATCH:  Little Vera opening