TIFF | The Herd

Friday January 27
06:30 PM
Details
Country: Turkey
Year: 1978-79
Language: Turkish
Runtime: 120 minutes
Rating: 14A
Principal Cast:
Director: Zeki Okten

An Anatolian family undertakes a perilous journey to sell their flock of sheep in far-off Ankara in Yilmaz Güney’s stirring epic, winner of numerous international prizes and now recognized as a classic of world cinema.
Notes

A must. Winner of the British Film Institute award and the Golden Leopard (Grand Prize) at the Locarno Film Festival, The Herd has become a classic of world cinema. Ironically, though co-directed by Güney's collaborator Zeki Ökten, the film vies with Yol as Güney's best known and "most cinematically beautiful" (Festival of Festivals) work. (Güney wrote it in prison, and sources vary as to how much he was involved in its direction.) An austerely beautiful neorealist epic, The Herd portrays a Kurdish family from southern Anatolia who, embroiled in a blood feud with a neighbouring clan, are driven by their tyrannical patriarch to auction their flock of sheep in far-off Ankara. Encountering misfortune at every turn on their journey and corruption when they finally reach their destination, the family is engulfed and betrayed by a rapidly changing modern state. Stirring and poetic, The Herd "achieves with limited resources a kind of epic grandeur and pathos" (Adrian Turner). "Excellent" (The Guardian).

"Sürü:" Halkımızın İsyan Dolu Çığlığı

De­ğer­li ar­ka­daş­lar,

“Sürü” en il­kel ko­şul­lar­da, en zor şart­lar al­tın­da bi­le dev­rim­ci de­mok­rat bir si­ne­ma ada­mı­nın is­yan do­lu çığ­lı­ğı­nı ve iç­ten ağı­dı­nı siz­le­re ulaş­tı­rı­yor. Bu ses ezi­len hal­kı­mın onur­lu se­si­dir. Bu ses, her şe­ye rağ­men bas­kı­la­ra kar­şı di­re­ni­şin, ya­sak­la­ra, en­gel­le­me­le­re mey­dan oku­ma­nın yi­ğit se­si­dir.

Bu se­si hiç kim­se sus­tu­ra­maz. Çığ­lı­ğı­mız, de­mok­rat dün­ya ka­mu­oyu­nu, hal­kı­mın ve ezi­len dün­ya halk­la­rı­nın yüz yü­ze ol­du­ğu bas­kı­la­ra kar­şı has­sas ol­ma­sı­na çağ­rı­dır. Ül­kem fa­şist dik­ta­tör­lük al­tın­da­dır. Bas­kı­nın ve zul­mün de­mir ök­çe­li çiz­me­le­ri al­tın­da ezil­mek­te­dir.

Dün­ya­nın han­gi kö­şe­sin­de olur­sa ol­sun, halk­lar üze­rin­de an­ti de­mok­ra­tik bas­kı­lar var­sa, in­san hak­la­rı ayak­lar al­tın­day­sa, bu sa­de­ce o acı­la­rı ya­şa­yan halk­la­rın de­ğil ay­nı za­man­da dün­ya de­mok­rat­la­rı­nın da so­ru­nu­dur.

Kim ki ken­di dı­şın­da­ki bas­kı­la­ra ka­yıt­sız ve umur­sa­maz­dır, on­lar da bas­kı­la­rın ve zul­mün suç or­tak­la­rı­dır. Ar­tık ba­ğır­ma­nın za­ma­nı­dır. Ölüm ku­san mah­ke­me­le­ri, idam seh­pa­la­rı­nı, iş­ken­ce oda­la­rı­nı la­net­le­me­nin za­ma­nı­dır. Emek­çi­le­rin, de­mok­rat ay­dın­la­rın se­si­ni sün­gü­ler­le sus­tur­mak is­te­yen­le­re gür bir ses­le “DUR” de­me­nin za­ma­nı­dır. Onur­la ya­şa­ma­nın tek yo­lu bu­dur.

Fi­zi­ki ola­rak ara­nız­da ol­ama­ya­ca­ğım ama se­si­mi ve is­yan do­lu yü­re­ği­min çar­pın­tı­la­rı­nı du­ya­ca­ğı­nı­za ina­nı­yo­rum. Şi­van ve Be­ri­van hal­kı­mın acı­la­rı­nı si­ze ve İn­gi­liz hal­kı­na an­la­ta­cak­tır.

Bir gün hal­kım zul­mü ye­ne­cek­tir.

Bir gün hal­kım kol­la­rı­nı sa­ran pas­lı zin­cir­le­ri par­ça­la­ya­cak­tır.

Si­ze ve İn­gi­liz hal­kı­na sı­cak ve en iç­ten se­lam­la­rı­mı ile­ti­yo­rum.

Se­lam… Bin se­lam…


Kaynak: http://kutuphane.halkcephesi.net/Yilmaz%20Guney/index.html

Film Notes from Harvard Film Archive | The Herd

The Herd (Süru)
Directed by Zeki Ökten. With Tarik Akan, Melike Demirag, Tuncel Kurtiz
Turkey 1978, 35mm, color, 129 min. Turkish with English subtitles

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.