TIFF | The Poor Ones

Sunday January 29
06:30 PM
Details
Country: Turkey
Year: 1974
Language: Turkish
Runtime: 72 minutes
Rating: 14A
Principal Cast:
Director: Yilmaz Güney, Atif Yilmaz


Three convicts relate the causes for their imprisonment in Yilmaz Güney’s gripping drama, which had to be completed by a collaborator after Güney was himself imprisoned for harbouring anarchist students.


Notes


In this strong foreshadowing of Yol, three convicts, the "poor ones" of the title, are released on a snowy night into a world in which they are outcasts. Flashbacks reveal their unfortunate pasts and the reasons they landed in jail (which seems more a refuge from the harsh outside than anything else). Their stories, involving betrayal, prostitution, and murder, accumulate into an indictment of the rampant injustice in a country that does nothing to prevent the innocent from falling into crime. Güney plays Abuzer, marked for life by witnessing a murder as a child, but the film had to be rewritten and his role reduced after shooting was first begun when Güney was imprisoned for harbouring anarchist students. Completed by his collaborator Atif Yilmaz, The Poor Ones nevertheless falls among Güney's most committed and critical works