Anatolian Agency Dispatch

Çirkin Kral filmleriyle Washington’da 

Goethe Enstitüsü ve Freer&Sackler Gallery’nin ev sahipliğini yaptığı 8 Güney filmi, Amerikalıların yoğun ilgisini çekti.Yıllardır Amerika’da film programları düzenleyen Ercüment Ackman ile Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Washington Müşavirliği ve Güney Film’in işbirliğiyle,Yılmaz Güney‘in unutulmaz filmlerinden ”Yol”, ”Umut”, ”Ağıt”, ”Sürü”, ”Seyit Han”, ”Aç Kurtlar”, ”Arkadaş” ve ”Zavallılar”, 9 ay boyunca ABD ve Kanada’yı dolaştı. Turun son ayakları kapsamında önce New York’taki Lincoln Center’de gösterimi büyük ilgi gören filmler, ABD turunu başkent Washington’da tamamlıyor.

Başkentte Goethe Enstitüsü ve Freer&Sackler Gallery’in ev sahipliği yaptığı gösterimlere ”Sürü” filmiyle başlandı. Goethe Enstitüsündeki gösterim Amerikalılardan ilgi gördü. Film gösteriminin ardından seyirciler de filme hayran kaldıklarını belirttiler.Yeni proje: ”10 yönetmen 10 film” olacakKuratör Ercüment Ackman da New York’ta Lincoln Center’da yapılan 29 filmlik Türk film panoramasının yeterli ilgiyi gördüğünü belirterek, ”Lincoln Center’ın müdürünün de söylediği gibi 25 senedir yapmak istediği bir programdı. Belki de bunun 10 sene önce değil, bugün yapılmış olmasının bize çok büyük faydaları var. Çünkü Türkiye’de sinemanın çeşitlendiği ve kültürel değerleri insanların özgürce filmlerinde seslendirebildikleri bir ortamda yapıldı. Eminim ki bu daha yeni filmlerle de devam edecek bir program” diye konuştu.

Washington’da ABD ve Kanada’yı dolaşan 8 Yılmaz Güney filmi serisinin son ayağının düzenlendiğini ve Goethe Enstitüsü’nde ilk gösterime ilginin iyi bir düzeyde olduğunu ifade eden Ackman, Goethe Enstitüsü’nün Güney’in ”Sürü”, ”Umut’ ve ”Yol” adlı filmlerini, Freer&Sackler Gallery’nin de ”Zavallılar”, ”Arkadaş” ve ”Ağıt” filmlerinin aralarında olduğu 5 filmi göstereceğini anlattı.

AA

TIFF Cinematheque celebrates Turkish filmmaker Yilmaz Guney

By

Andrew Parker

– January 19, 2012 

Posted in: Movie News, Toronto

1

While the term “national cinema” seems to be a bit of a misnomer (isn’t all cinema, by nature, national?), few directors have been tied to a national cinematic identity as Turkish filmmaker, Yilmaz Guney. Once described by former Village Voice critic J. Hoberman as “something like Clint Eastwood, James Dean, and Che Guevara combined,” the Kurdish filmmaker few in the western world have become acquainted with gets his due with a retrospective at the TIFF Bell Lightbox titled The Way Home: The Films of Turkish Master Yilmaz Guney.

While the series (running Thursday, January 26 through Sunday, February 5) focuses on his directorial and writing efforts, Guney was actually quite the matinee idol before stepping behind the camera. One of the biggest Kurdish stars in history, he has over 100 acting, producing, writing, and directing credits to his name, despite spending a great deal of his life in prison and dying from stomach cancer before he was even fifty years old.

While most of his acting output was in oaters often derided by Turkish film scholars as populist pieces of junk, Guney gained more notoriety and infamy in his home country as a writer and filmmaker. It was dangerous to be a Kurd in Guney’s world, especially an outspoken one. Kurds weren’t able to publish written works, own their own broadcasting systems, or even speak their own language. The idea of a writer, director, and actor attempting to impart his own ethnic background onto national cinema was something that often landed Guney is jail and branded as a seditionist and a Communist.
His first feature, the almost verite styled Hope (Thursday, January 26 at 6:30 p.m.) utilizes real locations and non-actors to tell the story of a driver and family man named Cabbar as he struggles with his own identity in an allegedly prosperous economy that seems to have no place for him. Rightfully positioned as a masterwork of Turkish cinema, this is a rare chance to see it on the big screen, as this and the seven other films selected for the programme are extremely hard to find since the Turkish government long suppressed and destroyed the films involving Guney in a bid to deny his impact on his culture.

With the films Bride of the Earth (Friday, February 3 at 6:30 p.m.), its sequel Elegy (Thursday, February 2 at 6:30 p.m.), and The Hungry Wolves (Saturday, February 4 at 7 p.m.), Hoberman’s Eastwood comparison comes into full light with these counterpart tales of a soulful smuggler told in the same vein of the John Ford and John Huston dramas that Guney modeled his own films on.
His two best known and most critically acclaimed works happened towards the end of his career and were actually directed via proxies because of his own imprisonment during the pre-production of The Poor Ones (Sunday, January 29 at 6:30 p.m.). The Herd (Friday, January 27 at 6:30 p.m.) was overseen by Zeki Okten and functions as a melodrama about an arranged marriage originally designed to bring two warring tribes together that ends up causing a bigger rift.
Guney would make his biggest splash on the international stage with the Serif Goren directed Yol (Saturday, January 28 at 6:30 p.m.), a semi-autobiographical work that shared the 1982 Palme d’Or at Cannes with Costa Gavras’ Missing. This story of five prisoners released from a penitentiary on temporary personal leave is a strikingly political look at how Guney’s own country had become a prison unto itself. The film caused such a stir in Turkey that it had to be smuggled out of the country to be edited in Europe. Guney escaped from prison to attend the Cannes award ceremony, after which he would disappear to create one final film in France before his death in 1984. Yol remained unseen in his native Turkey until February 12, 1999.

While some of the films haven’t particularly aged well in terms of content, they remain important historical documents on a culture rarely glimpsed on screen. The rarity of these films makes it highly unlikely that they might ever be shown again in Canada, let alone Toronto. For World Cinema completists, it’s a can’t miss proposition.
For other films, showtimes, and tickets, please visit tiff.net.
Top image: A scene from Yol. Courtesy TIFF.

About Andrew Parker

Andrew Parker writes for numerous blogs and publications, including Notes From the Toronto Underground and his more personal pop-culture blog, I Can't Get Laid in This Town. He is also the curator of the Defending the Indefensible series of films at the Toronto Underground Cinema.

Yilmaz Guney Panel | Goethe Institute | Parts 1-3

Wednesday, 16 May 2012, 6:30 pm 
Following Screening of Hope (Umut) 
Turkish with English subtitles 


Followed by discussion with: Tom Vick, Curator of Film, Freer and Sackler Galleries Sinan Ciddi, Institute of Turkish Studies, Georgetown University Asiye Kaya, DAAD Visiting Professor, BMW Center for German and European Studies Erju Ackman, Editor, Turkish Cinema Newsletter

 

Guney Series | Turkish Press Coverage

AA News | Çirkin Kral filmleriyle Washington'da

Çirkin Kral filmleriyle Washington'da

10 Mayıs 2012 11:42
Goethe Enstitüsü ve Freer&Sackler Gallery'nin ev sahipliğini yaptığı 8 Güney filmi, Amerikalıların yoğun ilgisini çekti.
WASHINGTON - Mehmet Toroğlu/Barışkan Ünal


Yıllardır Amerika'da film programları düzenleyen Ercüment Ackman ile Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Washington Müşavirliği ve Güney Film'in işbirliğiyle, Güney'in unutulmaz filmlerinden ''Yol'', ''Umut'', ''Ağıt'', ''Sürü'', ''Seyit Han'', ''Aç Kurtlar'', ''Arkadaş'' ve ''Zavallılar'', 9 ay boyunca ABD ve Kanada'yı dolaştı. Turun son ayakları kapsamında önce New York'taki Lincoln Center'de gösterimi büyük ilgi gören filmler, ABD turunu başkent Washington'da tamamlıyor.


Başkentte Goethe Enstitüsü ve Freer&Sackler Gallery'in ev sahipliği yaptığı gösterimlere  ''Sürü'' filmiyle başlandı. Goethe Enstitüsündeki gösterim Amerikalılardan ilgi gördü.
Film gösteriminin ardından seyirciler de filme hayran kaldıklarını belirttiler.


Yeni proje: ''10 yönetmen 10 film'' olacak


Kuratör Ercüment Ackman da New York'ta Lincoln Center'da yapılan 29 filmlik Türk film panoramasının yeterli ilgiyi gördüğünü belirterek, ''Lincoln Center'ın müdürünün de söylediği gibi 25 senedir yapmak istediği bir programdı. Belki de bunun 10 sene önce değil, bugün yapılmış olmasının bize çok büyük faydaları var. Çünkü Türkiye'de sinemanın çeşitlendiği ve kültürel değerleri insanların özgürce filmlerinde seslendirebildikleri bir ortamda yapıldı. Eminim ki bu daha yeni filmlerle de devam edecek bir program'' diye konuştu.


Washington'da ABD ve Kanada'yı dolaşan 8 Yılmaz Güney filmi serisinin son ayağının düzenlendiğini ve Goethe Enstitüsü'nde ilk gösterime ilginin iyi bir düzeyde olduğunu ifade eden Ackman, Goethe Enstitüsü'nün Güney'in ''Sürü'', ''Umut' ve ''Yol'' adlı filmlerini, Freer&Sackler Gallery'nin de ''Zavallılar'', ''Arkadaş'' ve ''Ağıt'' filmlerinin aralarında olduğu 5 filmi göstereceğini anlattı.

Lincoln Film | Guney Screenings

Lincoln Film | Guney Series Part 1 | Intro for Elegy Lincoln Film | Guney Series Part 2 | Elegy Q&A Lincoln Film | Guney Series Part 3 | Intro for Yol

Review | Yol

Yol (1982)
Director: Serif Gören


Average user rating (*****)


From Time Out Film Guide


In Yilmaz Güney's extraordinary Turkish odyssey (filmed by Gören from his script and detailed instructions while he was in jail), five prisoners are allowed a week's parole to journey home. In many ways it's a story about the tragedy of distances: the geographical and historical ones that still separate Turkey, and the distances imposed upon people by a military state and by a heritage that still expects husbands to punish by death wives taken in adultery. A kind of distance, too, makes this a film of the highest order. Its homesickness, for freedom above all, is very particular. Güney can't go home, and completed the film in exile. This perspective gives great clarity to his picture of the state of the nation, a state in suspense where something has to change, which gathers complexity and shifts effortlessly into universal allegory. The film's poetry, its combination of sound and image especially, has an unconscious innocence no longer available to most European and American narratives, and it is inspired by an enormous compassion for the suffering people endure at each other's hands in a world where the strong pick upon the weak, the weak upon the weaker.
Author: CPe
Time Out Film Guide
De­ğer­li ar­ka­daş­lar,

De­ğer­li ko­nuk­lar!..

Bu fil­mi siz­le­re sun­ma­yı, film­den son­ra da film üze­ri­ne ko­nuş­ma­yı çok is­ter­dim. An­cak bi­inen ne­den­ler­den ötü­rü bu­na ola­nak bu­la­ma­dım. Bil­me­ni­zi is­te­rim ki, ne­re­de olur­sam ola­yım, yü­re­ğim hal­kı­mın kav­ga­sı­na ve acı­sı­na ka­yıt­sız kal­ma­yan in­san­la­ra, hal­kı­mın kav­ga­sı­nı ve­ren in­san­la­ra sı­cak­lık­la açık­tır. Siz­le­ri bu duy­gu­lar­la se­lam­lı­yo­rum.

“Yol” Tür­ki­ye-Kür­dis­tan’ı bü­tün so­run ve bo­yut­la­rıy­la an­lat­mı­yor. An­la­ta­maz da. An­cak hal­kı­mın sa­vaş­çı­sı ol­ma­ya ken­di­si­ni ada­mış bir sa­nat­çı ola­rak önü­müz­de du­ran gö­rev­le­rin bi­lin­cin­de­yim. Sa­nat­çı ola­rak dev­rim kav­ga­sı­nın sı­ra­dan bir eri­yim. Yo­lu­muz uzun ve zor. An­cak aşıl­maz de­ğil…

Dev­rim­ci sa­nat dev­rim­ci sü­re­ci an­la­tan sa­nat­tır. Dev­rim­ci sa­nat, top­lum­sal, si­ya­sal, kül­tü­rel de­ği­şim­le­ri ve kav­ga­yı hem ta­nık ola­rak an­la­tan, hem de onu et­ki­le­yen sa­nat­tır. Sa­de­ce ta­nık ola­rak iz­le­mek ve yan­sıt­mak ye­ter­li de­ğil­dir, ay­nı za­man­da bu sü­re­ci et­ki­le­yen bir ni­te­li­ği ol­ma­lı­dır. Bu an­lam­da “Yol”, Tür­ki­ye ger­çe­ği­nin hem ta­nı­ğı, hem de onun de­ği­şi­mi­ni et­ki­le­yen bir ol­gu ola­rak ele alın­dı­ğın­da, dev­rim­ci bir gö­re­vi, iş­le­vi ye­ri­ne ge­tir­mek­te­dir.

Dev­rim­ci mü­ca­de­le­nin he­de­fi si­ya­sal ik­ti­da­rın ele ge­çi­ril­me­si­dir. Si­ya­sal ik­ti­dar bir son de­ğil, bir he­def de­ğil, top­lum­sal dev­ri­min ilk adı­mı, ka­pı anah­ta­rı­dır. Ya­ni si­ya­sal ik­ti­da­rı ele ge­çir­me­den, ik­na için ge­rek­li zo­ru ele ge­çir­me­den top­lum­sal bir de­ği­şik­li­ği yap­ma­nın ola­nak­la­rı yok­tur. An­cak si­ya­sal ik­ti­da­rın ele ge­çi­ril­me­si sü­re­cin­de, zo­run yal­nız­ca açık düş­man­lar, ya­ni em­per­ya­lizm, iş­bir­lik­çi bur­ju­va­zi, fa­şizm ve onun ku­rum­la­rı de­ğil, ay­nı za­man­da, düş­ma­nı yen­me­mi­zi en­gel­le­yen bü­tün ge­ri­ci ku­rum­lar­dır; örf, adet ve ge­le­nek­ler, ya­ni fe­odal ka­lın­tı­la­rın can ver­di­ği her şey. Biz, esas ola­rak, dev­rim­ci mü­ca­de­le için­de bi­le fe­odal yan­la­rı­mı­zı ye­ne­bil­miş de­ği­liz. Fe­odal yan­la­rı­mız gün­lük iliş­ki­le­ri­miz­den, si­ya­sal tu­tum ve ör­güt­len­me­le­ri­mi­ze ka­dar her şey­de ken­di­ni gös­te­ri­yor. Bu­nu yen­me­miz ge­rek­li. An­cak bu ye­niş, bi­çim­sel de­ğil, öz­den ol­ma­lı­dır. Bi­çim­sel ye­niş­ler ya da öy­le gö­rün­me­ler, as­lın­da dev­ri­me de­ğil, ge­ri­ci­li­ğe hiz­met edi­yor… Bi­çim­sel an­lam­da fe­odal tu­tu­mu yen­mek­ten­se, onu iç­ten bir bi­çim­de ku­lan­mak ve de­ğer­len­dir­mek se­çil­me­li­dir.

“Yol”, hem dev­le­tin ör­güt­len­miş bas­kı­sı­nı, hem de fe­odal ge­ri­ci­li­ğin ka­lın­tı­la­rı­nın can ver­di­ği bas­kı­la­rı an­la­tır­ken, önü­mü­ze sa­vaş­ma­mız ge­re­ken güç­le­rin bü­tü­nü­nü ko­yu­yor. Hal­kı dev­rim­ci sa­va­şa ha­zır­la­ma­nın te­mel yo­lu, onu ge­ri­ci alış­kan­lık, yar­gı ve an­la­yış­lar­dan kur­tar­ma­yı em­re­di­yor. Dev­rim­ci sü­reç bu­na ye­ter­li de­ğil. An­cak si­ya­sal ik­ti­da­rın iş­çi sı­nı­fı­nın ön­der­li­ğin­de­ki hal­kın eli­ne geç­me­si ilk adım ola­cak­tır. Ka­dın er­kek iliş­ki­le­ri, sa­de­ce bir cin­si­yet so­ru­nu de­ğil, sı­nıf­sal bir so­run­dur. Her top­lum­sal ya­pı, ken­di­ne öz­gü bir bi­çim­de ka­dın er­kek iliş­ki­le­ri­ne hu­ku­ki, top­lum­sal ve eko­no­mik bir içe­rik ka­zan­dı­rır. Ve bu top­lum­sal ya­pı için­de­ki in­san­lar, ka­dın er­kek ay­rı­mı gö­zet­me­den, so­ru­na ön­ce­lik­le eko­no­mik ve sos­yal sis­te­min be­lir­le­di­ği açı­dan ba­kar­lar is­ter is­te­mez. Be­nim için so­run, “Yol”da, sa­de­ce ka­dın so­ru­nu de­ğil, ay­nı za­manda er­kek­ler so­ru­nu­dur da. Çün­kü ezi­len sa­de­ce ka­dın de­ğil, er­kek­tir de. Ve asıl ezi­len ka­dın de­ğil er­kek­tir. Bir er­ke­ğin ka­dı­nı ez­me­si, ona bas­kı kur­ma­sı, ken­di­si­nin bas­kı al­tın­da ol­ma­sı­nın bir ifa­de­si­dir. Ka­dı­nın kur­tu­lu­şu, sı­nı­fın, ezi­len sı­nı­fın kur­tu­lu­şu ile müm­kün­dür. Ezi­len sı­nıf iş­çi sı­nı­fı­dır ve bu­ra­da be­lir­le­yi­ci güç er­kek­ler­de­dir. Er­kek­le­rin be­lir­le­yi­ci ol­du­ğu bir sı­nıf­ta, ön­ce er­kek­ler son­ra ka­dın­lar kur­tu­la­cak­tır. So­ru­nu ay­dın şe­ma­tiz­mi için­de ele al­ma­ma­lı­yız. Ka­dı­nın kur­tu­lu­şu, ezi­len sı­nıf­la­rın kur­tu­lu­şu­na bağ­lı­dır.

“Yol”, bir­çok­la­rı açı­sın­dan ezi­len ka­dın­la­rı an­lat­mak­ta­dır. Oy­sa, ezen cin­si­yet ola­rak gö­rü­len er­ke­ğin de ezil­di­ği­ni an­la­mak is­te­me­mek­te ya da bu ko­nu­da ka­yıt­sız kal­mak­ta­dır.

“Yol” Tür­ki­ye-Kür­dis­tan üze­ri­ne bir tar­tış­ma ve eği­lim ya­rat­tı gös­te­ril­di­ği yer­ler­de. Bu bir adım­dır; ge­liş­ti­ril­me­si ve de­rin­leş­ti­ril­me­si ge­re­ken bir adım. Her na­mus­lu in­sa­nın bu ge­liş­me­ye kat­kı­da bu­lun­ma­sı in­san­lık gö­re­vi­dir. Hep bir­lik­te hay­kır­mak, in­san­lık su­çu iş­le­yen­le­ri la­net­le­mek ge­re­kir.

Kah­rol­sun As­ke­ri Fa­şist Dik­ta­tör­lük!

“Yol” hal­kı­mın sus­tu­ru­la­ma­yan se­si­dir!

Se­lam… Bin se­lam!..

Guney Series | Doc Films Chicago

Download Program Flyer PDF
Guney Series | Doc Films Chicago

Article | Yilmaz Güney: spirit of vengeance

PROTEST WEEK / FILM
Yilmaz Güney: spirit of vengeance
Posted by Ben Sachs on 02.22.12 at 08:00 AM
Last Saturday I saw the Turkish film Elegy (1972) at Doc Films’s ongoing Yilmaz Güney series (which continues tomorrow night at 7 PM with the director’s most widely celebrated movie, Yol). I liked it for its suspense, but I had trouble understanding the plot. I asked one of the programmers afterward if he could explain why gendarmes were hunting down the main characters, who are never shown doing anything illegal. Was this bad storytelling or had I missed something in the dialogue? A scholar of Turkish history interrupted us (good thing the movie was playing at the University of Chicago!) and settled the matter in seconds. “Those people were Kurds—the Turkish government was trying to deny their existence at the time. The government banned this movie, just like they did most of the films Güney directed.”
A major movie star, novelist, and director, Güney came from a mostly Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey (the name for which he was known was in fact a pseudonym; güney is Turkish for “south”), though he didn’t openly embrace his ethnic background until the early 1970s, when the Kurdish nationalist movement gained momentum with support from the militant Turkish left, with which Güney was also affiliated. One can understand his apprehension to identify publicly as a Kurd. The Turkish government’s ongoing persecution of the ethnic minority resulted in the death and imprisonment of millions throughout the 20th century—a crisis that only intensified during Turkey’s periods of military rule that coincided with the height of Güney’s popularity. As J. Hoberman noted in a 1982 profile of Güney (included in his collection Vulgar Modernism):


The words “Kurd and “Kurdistan” are [currently] banned from Turkish history books and dictionaries; the Kurds are officially termed “Mountain Turks,” who speak Kurdish—itself illegal—because they have forgotten their mother tongue... Identity grows existential when the statement “I am a Kurd” brings a mandatory two-and-a-half stretch in a Turkish can.

Seen in this context, Güney’s Kurdish films are remarkable acts of protest, defying a national code of silence on the plight of many. Hoberman went so far as to call Yol “a movie so explosive that were it shown in his homeland it would signal the prelude to a revolution.” He added that the film “is about the essential, unspeakable Kurdishness of Turkey . . . it asserts that, under military rule, all Turks are now Kurds—the oppressed of the oppressed.” Their cruder qualities only betray a sense of urgency, as if Güney would have undermined the films’ impact had he devoted more time to their construction. The images of Elegy tend to be blunt and immediate: the ones I expect to remember longest are of lone figures running across dusty steppes, only to be shot down in their flight by agents of the law.


Yol (1982)
Does art become a more effective instrument of protest as it becomes less nuanced? Probably. When a crowd of thousands is chanting the same thing, you’re so impressed by their collective might that you don’t try to make out individual voices. Güney’s straightforward images can be similarly overwhelming, suggesting basic conflicts that may be understood—and thus related to others—by anyone. (That’s not to say that protest cinema must be blunt to be successful; Jafar Panahi’s nuanced films The Circle (2000) and Crimson Gold (2003) raised international awareness of injustice in Iran and were good enough to be banned at home.) As one of the most famous Kurds of his era, Güney used his celebrity to speak for millions; and as this current Doc series attests, their anger still resounds powerfully.

Lincoln Center Program Includes 3 Guney Films

  The Film Society together with the Moon and Stars Project of The American Turkish Society will present a 29-film survey of Turkish cinema, the largest such program ever mounted in the U.S. 


Just like the nation itself, Turkish cinema has always stood between traditions: richly informed about currents in European and American filmmaking while imbibing influences from Egyptian, Indian and--more recently--Iranian cinema, creating a fascinating mixture of styles and approaches. The 1960s saw the emergence of powerful, socially engaged filmmakers, perhaps best represented by Yılmaz Güney (a special focus of this series), as well as a highly commercial, extremely popular cinema, known as Yeşilçam, to which a new generation of Turkish film scholars has begun to turn its attention. In recent years, popular Turkish cinema has largely migrated to television, while a strong current of more personal auteurs—Fatih Akın, Zeki Demirkubuz, Yeşim Ustaoǧlu, and especially Nuri Bilge Ceylan—have been widely screened in international film festivals and art cinemas. There’s much to discover in Turkish cinema; it is our hope that this selection will whet your appetites for much more to come. 


Series programmed by Richard Peña.





IN THIS SERIES


40 Square Meters of Germany
Tevfik Başer, 1986
Tevfik Başer boldly opened new ground for the Turkish cinema with the deeply moving portrait of one woman’s experience as a guest worker’s wife living in Germany.


Can
Raşit Çelikezer, 2011
Opening night! Post-screening Q&A with director Rasit Celikezer!
A couple’s obsession with having a child runs parallel to a single woman’s neglectful treatment of her only child in Raşit Çelikezer’s award-winning new film.


Climates
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2006
Brilliantly shot with a digital camera, Ceylan’s trailblazing relationship drama chronicles the journey of a man (played by Ceylan) across Turkey after breaking up with his longtime girlfriend.


Confession
Zeki Demirkubuz, 2002
A taut, beautifully acted psychological drama about a husband who suspects his wife of having an affair, but is terrified that confronting her about it might prove she really is.


Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
Fatih Akin, 2005
Musical performance by oud player Harold Hagopian in the Furman Gallery before the screening, beginning at 9:30pm!
Gliding from Turkish rap to Kurdish laments, and Roma-flavored jazz to the great diva Müzeyyen Senar, Fatih Akın’s documentary brilliantly captures the sights and especially the sounds of Istanbul.


Despite Everything
Orhan Oǧuz, 1988
Just released from prison, Hasan tries to make his way in a rapidly changing Turkish society in this impressive debut feature by cinematographer-turned-director Oǧuz.


Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite
Tunç Başaran, 1989
Sent to prison along with his mother after her drug conviction, a young boy develops a warm, tender relationship with a political prisoner.


Dry Summer
Metin Erksan, 1963
Winner of the Golden Bear at the 1964 Berlin Film Festival, Metin Erksan’s searing political fable pits brothers against brother in a struggle between family loyalty and communal duty.


Elegy
Yilmaz Güney, 1971
Turkish cinema scholar Erju Ackman in person at the May 4 screening to discuss the work of Yılmaz Güney!
Güney directed, wrote and starred in this stirring tale of a notorious smuggler coming to terms with the corrupt society in which he’s considered an “outlaw.”


Future Lasts Forever
Özcan Alper, 2011
Closing night! Post-screening Q&A with director Ozcan Alper!
On a research trip to collect elegies from southeastern Turkey, a university student must confront her own story of love and loss inAutumn director Alper’s superb second film.


Hazal
Ali Özgentürk, 1981
Post-screening Q&A with director Ali Ozgenturk!
Türkan Şoray enjoyed one of her finest roles in Ali Özgentürk’s debut feature, playing a woman forced to marry her 11-year-old brother-in-law after her husband dies.


Hope
Yilmaz Güney, 1970
Yılmaz Güney directed, wrote and starred in this searing tale of a wagon-driver desperately trying to support his family as the dawning automotive era renders him obsolete.


Journey to the Sun
Yeşim Ustaoğlu, 1999
Post-screening Q&A with director Yesim Ustaoglu!
The friendship between two migrants to Istanbul, one a Kurd and one a Turk, forms the basis of this controversial drama.


Kosmos
Reha Erdem, 2010
Wed May 9: 8:45 pm 
This densely layered, magic-realist flavored tale chronicles the consequences of the arrival of a supposed holy man in a forgotten Turkish town.


Motherland Hotel
Ömer Kavur, 1987
The promised yet unfulfilled return of a mysterious hotel guest drives its proprietor to madness in Ömer Kavur’s award-winning adaptation of Yusuf Atilgan’s novel.


My Aunt
Halit Refiǧ, 1987
A giant of Turkish filmmaking, Halit Refiǧ made one of his finest films with this searing tale of a woman destroyed by those closest to her, featuring a remarkable Müjde Ar in the lead role.


My Cinemas
Füruzan Karamustafa, Gülsün Karamustafa, 1990
A young girl finds refuge from her brutal home life in the images and stories from the silver screen, but as she becomes an adult discovers that the cinema can be its own kind of trap.


O Beautiful Istanbul 
Atıf Yılmaz, 1966 
A world-weary street photographer tries to dispel the optimism of an aspiring actress, only to find himself catching the fever in Atıf Yılmaz ’s much-loved comedy.


On Fertile Lands
Erden Kıral, 1979
Banned by the military and for decades virtually lost, this searing indictment of the harsh treatment of rural workers in southern Turkey remains as topical today as ever.


Revenge of the Snakes
Metin Erksan, 1962
The template for Turkey’s realist cinema, Metin Erksan’s masterpiece dissects the tensions that erupt in a small eastern village after a property dispute between neighbors.


Secret Face
Ömer Kavur, 1991
A photographer’s search for a mysterious woman turns into a metaphysical journey in this gripping tale directed by Ömer Kavur and written by Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk.


Somersault in a Coffin
Derviş Zaim, 1996
A darkly comic fable about those left behind while the economy surges ahead, Derviş Zaim’s impressive debut shows a side of contemporary Turkey rarely seen on screen.


Steam: The Turkish Bath
Ferzan Ozpetek, 1997
Inheriting a steam bath from an aunt he’d never met, Francesco (Alessandro Gassman) travels to Istanbul and confronts the possibility of a new life in director Ozpetek’s stunning feature debut.
Read more...


Summer Book
Seyfi Teoman, 2008
A languid Mediterranean summer is interrupted by the sudden illness of 10-year old Ali’s father in this perceptive portrait of a family living through crisis.


The Girl With the Red Scarf
Atif Yılmaz, 1977
One of the all-time most popular Turkish films, a tender and touching reflection on love and responsibility brought to the screen with great sensitivity.


The Law of the Border
Lütfi Ö. Akad, 1966
For many, the new Turkish Cinema of the 1960s was born with this epic smuggling drama and social exposé starring Yılmaz Güney, beautifully restored by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation.


The Space Between: The Trajectory of Cinema in Turkey
Free panel discussion!
Join film scholars Fatih Özgüven and Zeynep Dadak and directors Raşit Çelikezer, Ali Ozgenturk, and Yesim Ustaoglu for this provocative panel discussion on the past, present and future of Turkish cinema.


Three Friends
Memduh Ũn, 1958
A warm, Chaplinesque social comedy about three penniless friends who meet a beautiful blind girl and create for her an Istanbul of the imagination.


Vizontele
Yılmaz Erdoğan, Ömer Faruk Sorak, 2001
Thu May 10: 2:00 pm 
The introduction of the first television set into a small village sparks social confrontation and a lot of laughs in this popular comedy that spawned a number of sequels.


Yol
Şerif Gören, 1982
Fri May 4: 8:30 pm 
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, this most famous of all Turkish films, about five prisoners given a week’s furlough, was directed by Gören from a detailed screenplay by jailed auteur Yılmaz Güney.

Hope | Lincoln Center

HOPE
UMUT | YILMAZ GÜNEY, 1970
TURKEY | FORMAT: 35MM | 100 MINUTES


With Hope, Yılmaz Güney—already a popular screen actor—became a major director as well, blending together several of the richest currents in Turkey’s socially engaged cinema into a work that remains as powerful today as when first screened. Cabbar (played by Güney himself) supports his family by driving a broken-down horse-drawn wagon, but competition from taxis threatens to put him out of business. At wit’s end, Cabbar starts to search for a hidden treasure with the aid of a hodja, a mystic. Despite Cabbar’s frequent laments about the hand of fate that seems to rule his life, Güney is always careful to point out the very human causes behind his apparent destiny. Hope was banned in Turkey, but a copy was smuggled out to the Cannes Film Festival, where it caused a sensation; the official ban on the film would remain in effect on the film for almost twenty years.


SERIES: THE SPACE BETWEEN: A PANORAMA OF CINEMA IN TURKEY
VENUE: WALTER READE THEATER

Yol | Lincoln Center

YOL
ŞERIF GÖREN, 1982
TURKEY/SWITZERLAND/FRANCE | TURKISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FORMAT: 35MM | 111 MINUTES
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, this most famous of all Turkish films starts in a prison, where those prisoners who have served at least a third of their time are given a week’s furlough to go home. Yet, as the film makes shockingly clear, going outside the prison walls doesn’t necessarily end one’s personal incarceration. Directed from a highly detailed screenplay by Yılmaz Güney (who was in jail at the time) by his close collaborator Şerif Gören, Yol renders each of its five principal stories with sympathy and clarity, creating a vibrant, visceral sense of prisoners’ world, while offering insights into their dreams and fears.  Rarely has a film so effectively communicated an atmosphere defined by daily oppression, yet Yol is not without hope: grave as their family or romantic problems might be, each prisoner knows they must be addressed squarely.


SERIES: THE SPACE BETWEEN: A PANORAMA OF CINEMA IN TURKEY
VENUE: WALTER READE THEATER

Elegy | Lincoln Center

ELEGY
AĞIT | YILMAZ GÜNEY, 1971
TURKEY | FORMAT: 35MM | 80 MINUTES
Turkish cinema scholar Erju Ackman in person at the May 4 screening to discuss the work of Yılmaz Güney!


In this return to territory explored in earlier films such as Law of the Border, Yılmaz Güney—again working as director, writer and lead actor—offers a tale about smugglers working in southeastern Turkey. Çobanoǧlu is a former peasant who took to smuggling in order to survive, made notorious by his success in eluding capture. The locals compete with each other to give information on Çobanoǧlu to the authorities for a price, while the landowners aren’t above hiring him for some of their own dirty work. Yet through it all, Çobanoǧlu keeps his dignity, convinced there must be some way out of this vicious cycle of corruption. Once again, Güney creates a powerful portrait of a society feeding on itself, destroying its own possibilities for reform or improvement. The use of landscapes recalls the look and work of Peckinpah,  whose own, similarly themed The Wild Bunch had just been released.


SERIES: THE SPACE BETWEEN: A PANORAMA OF CINEMA IN TURKEY
VENUE: WALTER READE THEATER

Guney Series | Goethe-Institut Washington

Yılmaz Güney: Master of Euro-Asian Film Culture Co-presented with the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution Film Series


9 May 2012 - 21 May 2012 Goethe-Institut Washington, GoetheForum 


Schedule:  

 Wednesday, May 9, 6:30 pm The Herd (Sürü)

 Wednesday, May 16, 6:30 pm Hope (Umut) 

 Monday, May 21, 6:30 pm Yol

info@washington.goethe.org


Turkish with English subtitles $7/$4 + 1 (202) 289-1200 

Related links

• Buy tickets for GoetheForum screenings on-line from Box Office Tickets.   
• Freer and Sackler Galleries   
• Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC   
• Turkish Cinema Newsletter   

"We're all somehow his children." — Fatih Akin 


“An inspiration to countless subsequent directors, including the Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin (Head-On), who has spent the last years preparing a film about his self-declared hero, Güney drew on Italian neorealism to make his deeply humane and passionately committed works about the social reality of his country.” — James Quandt 


Yilmaz Güney (1937–1984) is a legendary figure in Turkish cinema. His remarkable career trajectory led him from roles as a popular leading man to a filmmaker so politically dangerous Turkish authorities threw him in prison. Güney and his work became more widely-known in the Western world after his film Yol, banned in Turkey, won a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982. Films will be shown in Turkish with English subtitles. In cooperation with “The Way Home: The Films of Turkish Master Yılmaz Güney”, at the Freer and Sackler Galleries May 6 – 20. Acknowledgements: Special thanks to the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture and Tourism; Turkish Culture and Tourism Counselor's Office, Washington D.C.; Hüseyin Karabey, The Güney Foundation; Erju Ackman, Turkish Cinema Newsletter. All film prints supplied by the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture and Tourism - General Directorate of Copyright and Cinema / Telif Hakları ve Sinema Genel Müdürlüğü, Dr. Abdurrahman Çelik, General Director.

Room 666 and Guney

Wim Wenders' "Room 666" is a 45-minute documentary in which he asks several directors to answer questions about the future of cinema. The twist? The year is 1982. See what the directors, including Godard, Spielberg and Herzog, got right about the future and which of their answers could surprisingly still apply today. The film, in its entirety, can be found below.



Wim Wenders - Room 666 (1982) from Cpá TV on Vimeo.

Goethe-Institut | Yılmaz Güney: Master of Euro-Asian Film Culture

May 9 – 21, 2012

Goethe-Institut

Yılmaz Güney: Master of Euro-Asian Film Culture

"We're all somehow his children." — Fatih Akin

“An inspiration to countless subsequent directors, including the Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin (Head-On), who has spent the last years preparing a film about his self-declared hero, Güney drew on Italian neorealism to make his deeply humane and passionately committed works about the social reality of his country.” — James Quandt

Yilmaz Güney (1937–1984) is a legendary figure in Turkish cinema. His remarkable career trajectory led him from roles as a popular leading man to a filmmaker so politically dangerous Turkish authorities threw him in prison. Güney and his work became more widely-known in the Western world after his film Yol, banned in Turkey, won a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982.

Co-presented with the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution.

Films will be shown in Turkish with English subtitles.

Wednesday, May 9, 6:30 pm

The Herd (Sürü)

Turkey, 1978, 35mm, 129 min., Director: Zeki Ökten, Screenplay: Yilmaz Güney, Cast: Tarik Akan, Melike Demirag, Tuncel Kurtiz

The Herd has a simple premise that it utilizes to devastating effect: the economic survival of a Kurdish family depends on its ability to drive its herd of sheep from the mountains to Ankara. The film follows the driving of the herd; the constant threats to the livestock and the family serve both as a kind of ethnographic documentary and as existential (and political) parable. Explaining to an interviewer about his use of metaphor and allegory to express himself politically in his films, Güney declared that the subject of The Herd was the history of the Kurds. At the same time, he noted, the film was made in Turkish; any public use of the Kurdish language was illegal at the time.

Wednesday, May 16, 6:30 pm

Hope (Umut)
Turkey, 1970, 35mm, 100 min., Director: Yilmaz Güney, Cast: Yilmaz Güney, Gülsen Alniaçik, Tuncel Kurtiz, Osman Alyanak

When one of his horses is killed in a car collision, cab driver Cabbar must find a way to keep his large family afloat. Illiterate and in debt to many people, the police do not help him seek justice against the car’s driver, and he is plunged into despair until his friend Hasan suggests that they go and find a mythical buried treasure in the desert. Bringing along a preacher for spiritual guidance, the three men journey across the desert to retrieve the treasure—their last remaining hope.

Followed by discussion with

Tom Vick, Film Programmer, Freer and Sackler Galleries

Sinan Ciddi, Institute of Turkish Studies, Georgetown University

Asiye Kaya, DAAD Visiting Professor, BMW Center for German and European Studies

Erju Ackman, Editor, Turkish Cinema Newsletter

 

Monday, May 21, 6:30 pm

Yol
Turkey, 1982, 35mm, 114 min., Director: Yılmaz Güney and Serif Gören, Cast: Tarik Akan, Serif Sezer, Halil Ergun, Necmettin Çobanoglu, Hikmet Çelik

This story tells the stories of five prisoners allowed a week to return home. Seyit Ali must contend with the fact that his wife has been discovered working as a prostitute and her family is holding her for Seyit to perform an honor killing. Thief Mehmet Salih must tell his wife that he abandoned her brother while he was being shot at by the police, much to the ire of his in-laws. Ömer, a man from a border village, has to face the consequences of rampant smuggling and tensions with the army. In this dramatic tale, tradition is as much of a prison as a jailhouse itself. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

In cooperation with “The Way Home: The Films of Turkish Master Yılmaz Güney”, at the Freer and Sackler Galleries May 6 – 20. Visit www.asia.si.edu for full descriptions and schedule updates.

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture and Tourism; Turkish Culture and Tourism Counselor's Office, Washington D.C.; Hüseyin Karabey, The Güney Foundation; Erju Ackman, Turkish Cinema Newsletter. All film prints supplied by the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture and Tourism - General Directorate of Copyright and Cinema / Telif Hakları ve Sinema Genel Müdürlüğü, Dr. Abdurrahman Çelik, General Director.

The Way Home: The Films of Turkish Master Yilmaz Güney

The Freer and Sackler Galleries | The Way Home: 

The Films of Turkish Master Yilmaz Güney

A master of startling imagery, vigorous storytelling, and political commitment, Yilmaz Güney (1937–1984) is a legendary figure in Turkish cinema and undoubtedly the best-known and most controversial filmmaker the country has produced to date. Copresented with the Goethe-Institut in Washington, DC, this retrospective traces Güney’s remarkable career trajectory, from a popular leading man to a filmmaker so politically dangerous the Turkish authorities threw him in prison.  This retrospective was organized by Erju Ackman. Special thanks to the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism; Turkish Culture and Tourism Counselor’s Office, Washington, DC; Hüseyin Karabey, The Güney Foundation; and Erju Ackman, Turkish Cinema Newsletter. This series features new 35mm prints provided by the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture and Tourism—General Directorate of Copyright and Cinema/Telif Haklari ve Sinema Genel Müdürlügü, Dr. Abdurrahman Çelik, General Director. WEEK OF SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012 SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012 The Hungry Wolves/Aç kurtlar Sunday, May 6, 2 pm Both hunter and hunted, a bandit (Güney) lives in a desolate snowscape, beautifully captured in stark black-and-white cinematography. Though he seems invincible, the bandit becomes increasingly desperate to protect his family from his enemies. The film’s emotive musical score recalls Ennio Morricone as surely as its tale of revenge recalls Sergio Leone. Indeed, the stoic, tightlipped determination of Güney’s bandit seems modeled after Clint Eastw… The Poor/Zavallilar Sunday, May 6, 3:30 pm Like so many of Güney’s subsequent films, The Poor is about prisoners. The film opens on a winter night as three convicts are released. A complex structure of flashbacks describes how they came to be imprisoned, revealing that their lives have been marked with betrayal, degradation, and violence stemming from their poverty. At the same time, the film follows the men through the night as they are faced with reentering society. Production of The… FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012

WEEK OF SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2012

FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012


The Friend/Arkadas
Friday, May 11, 7 pm
Of all of Güney’s films, The Friend most resembles a European art film. Güney focuses on alienation among the Turkish middle classes by contrasting their empty lives with the struggles of the peasantry. At a seaside resort, a wealthy aristocrat from an impoverished small town finds himself reunited with a childhood friend, played by Güney.
In his directorial role, Güney constructs an Antonionian malaise out of the glassy surfaces of the resort’s…SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2012

Bride of the Earth/Seyit Han Sunday, May 20, 2 pm The first film that Güney acknowledged as a fully realized effort,Bride of the Earth stars the director himself as a man separated from his bride-to-be by the superstitions and feudal conditions of rural life. The film’s attention to poverty as a barrier to happiness and personal aspiration presages Güney’s more overtly political work. Baroque, almost Bosch-like touches—a woman trapped in a wicker cage; a man in quicksand up to his…

Elegy/Agit Sunday, May 20, 3:30 pm Güney stars as one of four smugglers living and working in a desolate, mountainous region. The macho braggadocio and violence of the men (reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch) is contrasted with the quiet determination of a doctor who ministers to the impoverished villagers as best as she can. Although the film is apparently a step back from the political neorealism of Hope towards the rough lyricism of Bride of the Earthand The Hungry…

CFI | The Poor Ones

Zavallilar
(The Poor Ones)


dir. Yılmaz Güney & Atif Yılmaz
Turkey  1975
72 minutes
English subtitles
The Way Home: The Films of Turkish Master Yılmaz Güney


Auditorium, Library and Archives Canada
Friday, February 17, 9:00 pm


Three incarcerated men—Abuzar, Arap, and Hacı—are anxious about their release from prison. They have no-where to go and beg to stay in prison at least until spring, where they can bide the winter months with a source of food and a roof over their heads. Arap has been imprisoned after being cheated by his employer, whom he then tried to fight. Hacı found himself in prison after being betrayed by a prostitute with whom he had fallen in love. Abuzar turned to a life of crime after witnessing his mother kill a man to whom she had been sold. Telling their stories, the three men embody social issues in Turkish society.

CFI | Hope

Umut
(Hope)


dir. Yılmaz Güney
Turkey  1970
100 minutes
English subtitles
The Way Home: The Films of Turkish Master Yılmaz Güney


Auditorium, Library and Archives Canada
Friday, February 17, 7:00 pm


When one of his horses is killed in a car collision, cab driver Cabbar must find a way to keep his large family afloat. Illiterate and in debt to many people, the police do not help him seek justice against the car’s driver, and he is plunged into despair until his friend Hasan suggests that they go and find a mythical buried treasure in the desert. Bringing along a preacher for spiritual guidance, the three men journey across the desert to retrieve the treasure—their last remaining hope.