Yol (1982) The Road

Directors: Serif Gören, Yilmaz Güney
Stars: Tarik Akan, Serif Sezer, Halil Ergün

Yol is the story of five inmates who have been released under condition for a week from a half-closed prison. A wide and detailed panorama of Turkey is drawn with the stories of each inmate during their long journey home by bus and train. These poor and depressed people live under feodal structure of thought and conditions. Witness the "lost lives" of inmates Suleyman, Mevlut, Omer, Memed Salih and Seyit Ali Fırat. In fact, the story underlines the reality of the country which is "a prison holding 45 million people both inside and outside "which is revealed through the panorama offered with the stories of each inmate.

IMDB

- 7 wins

… 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 (…) [it] 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.

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