Category – YOL – The Full Version

YOL – The Full Version @ Movies that Matter Festival in Den Haag

Meet Donat Keusch

Mon 25 Mar

Den Haag, Filmhuis Den Haag

YOL – The Full Version

Yılmaz Güney, Şerif Gören

Monumental piece of cinema about six Kurdish and Turkish prisoners who try to get their life back on track during a week’s leave from prison. Written by Kurdish director Yılmaz Güney while he was in prison himself. Now, Yol is restored and finally completed.

Yol is the rare film whose production may have been more dramatic than its story. Written while Kurdish director Yılmaz Güney was imprisoned by Turkey’s military junta, Yol was ultimately finished after Güney escaped prison and went into exile. Banned in Turkey until 1999 due to its depiction of Kurdish culture, this story of how five prisoners spent their week of leave won the Palme d’Or at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

This newly produced ‘full’ version of the film, YOL – The Full Version, restores the sixth story that was in Güney’s original script, finally realising the late filmmaker’s vision for this legendary work of cinema.

 

Take on Classics:

introduction by Gökhan Yeter and Donat Keusch

Prior to the gripping screening of YOL – The Full Version, moderator Gökhan Yeter takes us into a conversation with producer Donat Keusch and our guest of honour Ahmet Boyacıoğlu. Hear firsthand from Keusch, who has worked with Yılmaz Güney, how the film came about and his personal experiences with Güney.

Donat Keusch discovered the groundbreaking film SÜRÜ (The Herd) in 1979, during a cold Berlin Film Festival, and defied conventional sales channels to secure its distribution. Keusch’s collaboration with Yılmaz Güney’s Güney Filmcilik continued, leading to the successful release of DÜŞMAN (The Enemy) and the monumental project “BAYRAM“. Güney and Keusch’s partnership reached its pinnacle with YOL, a Cannes Film Festival triumph, earning Güney the prestigious Golden Palm in 1982.

Language: English

Golden Apricot, Yerevan, 2022: “YOL – The Full Version”, restored and expanded raises festival consciousness

By Alex Deleon for filmfestivals.com
16.07.2022 | ALEX FARBA’s blog

19th Golden Apricot Film Festival Reviews, Yerevan, 2022 YOL, The Full Version, restored and expanded raises festival consciousness. 

Freshly minted and fully packed to stir the soul!

The Turkish film YOL (The Way | The Road)  caused quite a stir when it was “rescued from prison” and presented at the 1982 Cannes film festival where it shared the  top prize, the Palme d’Or, jointly with MISSING by Costa Gavras.  (Currently a Special Guest of GIAFF)

The film was banned in Turkey for many years because of the way it showed the oppression of the Kurdish minority — a no-not to this very day — and the implicit harsh criticism of Turkish society in general.

In 1982 the story concerns the varying fates of five  prisoners, three Kurdish , who are granted one week’s home leave from jail for the Bayram holiday and find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.  The central story is that of Seyit Ali (Tarik Akan) who is expected to kill his beloved wife, Zine, who turned to prostitution during his absence and has been held prisoner by the family awaiting his return to perform the  Honor Killing required by Islam. Seyit is determined to do his religious duty but has a change of heart when he sees her and their two children again — which will lead to enormous tragic consequences.

 

The film  was written, and directed —  incredibly via instruction from his prison cell,  by Yılmaz Güney, at the time Turkey’s most popular movie star and, as such, a national idol.

A parallel side story, itself a thriller, is the way in which  Donat Keusch who is Swiss and the current distributor of a restored  full version of YOL, went to Turkey and personally smuggled Güney out of prison on false papers,  then miraculously managed to get him to France.  Whew — whutta story!

What is noteworthy is how gripping and once again relevant YOL is, now forty years later. I think a better English translation would be “On The Road”… from then to now!

The YOL shown at Cannes in 1982 was an abridged version rushed to be shown at the festival not completely finished — and was yet compelling enough to merit a share of the grand prix, appropriately paired with Gavras’s Political thriller MISSING.

Having lived with YOL for four decades Keusch always wanted to bring out a Full Version which he finally masterminded and Brought back to Cannes in 2017.

The fleshed out new edition  contains a sixth story in addition to the original five and,  crucially for the orientation of foreign viewers,  onscreen identification of each city visited by the temporarily free Kurdish jailbirds.  The final scenes in which Seyit is desperately trying to save his estranged wife from freezing to death in a driving snowstorm is simply excruciating not to mention bone chilling.  As it so graphically represents the rejection of the  whole idea of “honor killing”  which  brings such poisonous dishonor to Islam.

At any rate “YOL – The Full Version” was for me the high point ot the week and a reminder of how powerful cinema can be in the right hands, regardless of national origin. The power of YOL is that it does not preach, but merely tells a gripping set of stories that will move you to your own conclusions, if any.

 

Mr. Keusch and his DFK organization have done a great service to the film community at large by bringing this forgotten Turkish masterpiece  back out of the dark at a time when a new Turkish dictatorship is very much darkening the news. Gabriele Sindler and  Donat Keusch have been all over town visiting museums and other places and persons of interest.  At lunch Keusch retold the incredible tale of helping Yılmaz Güney escape from jail and flee the country, which he is now putting into book form, — so hair raising a tale that I could already see the movie that may eventually come out of it.

I  then asked Mr. Keusch about his overall impression of the festival.  His answer was another chilling eye opener calling attention to the obvious — — “The worst festival I have ever attended — there is no awareness of the art of film here —  Terrible projection in the main venues is the norm, and too many bad  prints undermine everything … plus very bad festival organization,  relying primarily on amateur volunteer help …”

The dark side of stark reality,  not  meant specifically to spoil the fun

 

 

YOL – The Full Version | Opening Film @ Moscow Kurdish Film Festival

Opening ceremony and screening of YOL – The Full Version
in Moscow | June 29, 2022 (Wed) | 19:00 | Cinema center “October” HALL 1
screening in  St. Petersburg |  June 29, 2022 (Wed)  | 20:00 | Cinema “Karo 11 Ohta” HALL 5

41 years ago, the Turkish military junta brutally attacked the opposition.  This is closely intertwined with the history of the most famous Turkish film. For decades YOL has moved audiences all over the world. The unfinished version won the most coveted award, the Golden Palm at the 1982 Cannes film festival. One can watch the masterpiece of Turkish-Kurdish film history, complete and restored as “YOL – The Full Version”. This is a must-see for anyone who wants to understand Turks and Kurds – and you will learn a lot about yourself.

The people portrayed in the film are Turkish and Kurdish, but such people are to be found wherever there is a struggle against oppression. They are all prisoners, some behind bars, many are prisoners of their own minds, but all are prisoners of the state.

In its depiction of the living conditions of six prisoners on home leave, YOL portrays an outline of the human landscape of Turkey. We experience how the people are oppressed, in particular, the Kurds and women. The patriarchal structure and its attitude to morality make up part of the repression.

The story is predominantly told through the fate of three prisoners, Seyit Ali, Mehmet Salih and Ömer. Three men who are torn from their daily lives. They had hoped that three days would suffice to forget the humiliation of everyday prison life and solve their most pressing issues at home. These shattered dreams make their crippling circumstances seem all the worse. So much for a glorious life of freedom! Ömer breaks out, Mehmet is shot and Seyit Ali remains a prisoner of his indecision. The struggle for a better life must continue and will last a long time…

Yılmaz Güney, Paris 1982

YOL – Tam Versiyon (2017, Altyazılı)

12 Eylül 1980’de Türkiye’de gerçekleşen ve toplumsal muhalefete vahşice saldıran askeri darbe, Türkiye sinemasının yüz akı olan YOL’un hikayesiyle iç içe geçmiştir. Yıllardır dünyanın pek çok yerinde karşılaştığı sayısız seyircide her zaman bir iz bırakan YOL’un tamamlanmamış versiyonu, 1982 yılında Cannes Film Festivali’nde en büyük ödül olan Altın Palmiye Ödülü’nü kazandı. Türk-Kürt sinema tarihinin bu başyapıtı eksiksiz biçimde restore edildi ve  “YOL – Tam Versiyon“ adıyla yeniden seyircinin karşısına çıktı. Yılmaz Güney’in onur ve tutku, cesaret ve acı, merhamet ve zulüm, dehşet, öfke, aşk ve hayat hakkındaki bu baş döndürücü filmi, 1980’lerden beri güncelliğinden hiçbir şey yitirmedi. Film, Yılmaz Güney’in orijinal kurgu planına göre titiz biçimde yeniden kurgulandı ve Cannes’daki süre kısıtlaması nedeniyle ilk versiyondan çıkarılan bir ana karakter filme yeniden dahil edildi.

Bu filmdeki insanlar Türkler ve Kürtlerdir, ancak bu hikayelerde anlatılan insanları, baskıya karşı mücadele verilen her yerde bulabilirsiniz. Kahramanların hepsi mahpuslardır, bir kısmı demir parmaklıkların, çoğu da kendi ahlak anlayışlarının mahpusudurlar, ancak hepsi devletin hapishanesinde tutulmaktadırlar. YOL, altı mahkumun ev izni için çıktıkları seyahati anlatırken, Türkiye’nin beşeri bir haritasını çiziyor. Bu filmle, insanların, özellikle de Kürtlerin ve kadınların nasıl baskıya uğradığını seyrediyoruz. Ataerkil yapıların ve ahlakın nasıl baskının parçası olduğunu izliyoruz. Hikaye, koşulların onları sürüklediği güzergahlara ilerleyen üç mahkumun, yani Seyit Ali, Mehmet Salih ve Ömer’in yazgıları üzerinden anlatılmıştır. Bu mahkumların umudu, hapishanenin aşağılayıcı koşullarını unutmak ve hanelerindeki en acil meseleleri çözmek için bir haftalık izin süresinin yeterli olmasıdır. Yıkılan hayalleri ise yenilgilerini daha çarpıcı hale getirmektedir. Özgürlük günlerinde takdir görecek bir hayat için çıkarlar bu yola! Ömer devletten kaçar, Mehmet vurulur ve Seyit Ali de kendi tereddüdünün esiri olmaya devam eder. Daha iyi bir hayat için verilen kavga devam etmelidir ve uzun sürecektir…
Yılmaz Güney, Paris 1982

YOL – The Full Version | Berlin | OmU

12. September 2020 | 19.00 | Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
hofkino.berlin – open air cinema at FMP1 | Franz-Mehring-Platz 1 | 10243 Berlin

At the occasion of the military coup on September 12, 1980 in Turkey, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation shows “YOL – The Full Version” and organizes a discussion with the producer Donat Keusch.

38 years ago, the Turkish military junta brutally attacked the opposition.  This is closely intertwined with the history of the most famous Turkish film. For decades YOL has moved audiences all over the world. The unfinished version won the most coveted award, the Golden Palm at the 1982 Cannes film festival. One can watch the masterpiece of Turkish-Kurdish film history, complete and restored as “YOL – The Full Version”. This is a must-see for anyone who wants to understand Turks and Kurds – and you will learn a lot about yourself.

The people portrayed in the film are Turkish and Kurdish, but such people are to be found wherever there is a struggle against oppression. They are all prisoners, some behind bars, many are prisoners of their own minds, but all are prisoners of the state.

In its depiction of the living conditions of six prisoners on home leave, YOL portrays an outline of the human landscape of Turkey. We experience how the people are oppressed, in particular, the Kurds and women. The patriarchal structure and its attitude to morality make up part of the repression.

The story is predominantly told through the fate of three prisoners, Seyit Ali, Mehmet Salih and Ömer. Three men who are torn from their daily lives. They had hoped that three days would suffice to forget the humiliation of everyday prison life and solve their most pressing issues at home. These shattered dreams make their crippling circumstances seem all the worse. So much for a glorious life of freedom! Ömer breaks out, Mehmet is shot and Seyit Ali remains a prisoner of his indecision. The struggle for a better life must continue and will last a long time…

Yılmaz Güney, Paris 1982

 

YOL – Tam Versiyon (2017, Altyazılı)

12 Eylül
Kapı Açılışı: 19:00, Program Başlangıcı: 20:00

Filmin yapımcısı Donat Keusch ile söyleşi

12 Eylül 1980’de Türkiye’de gerçekleşen ve toplumsal muhalefete vahşice saldıran askeri darbe, Türkiye sinemasının yüz akı olan YOL’un hikayesiyle iç içe geçmiştir. Yıllardır dünyanın pek çok yerinde karşılaştığı sayısız seyircide her zaman bir iz bırakan YOL’un tamamlanmamış versiyonu, 1982 yılında Cannes Film Festivali’nde en büyük ödül olan Altın Palmiye Ödülü’nü kazandı. Türk-Kürt sinema tarihinin bu başyapıtı eksiksiz biçimde restore edildi ve  “YOL – Tam Versiyon“ adıyla yeniden seyircinin karşısına çıktı. Yılmaz Güney’in onur ve tutku, cesaret ve acı, merhamet ve zulüm, dehşet, öfke, aşk ve hayat hakkındaki bu baş döndürücü filmi, 1980’lerden beri güncelliğinden hiçbir şey yitirmedi. Film, Yılmaz Güney’in orijinal kurgu planına göre titiz biçimde yeniden kurgulandı ve Cannes’daki süre kısıtlaması nedeniyle ilk versiyondan çıkarılan bir ana karakter filme yeniden dahil edildi.

Bu filmdeki insanlar Türkler ve Kürtlerdir, ancak bu hikayelerde anlatılan insanları, baskıya karşı mücadele verilen her yerde bulabilirsiniz. Kahramanların hepsi mahpuslardır, bir kısmı demir parmaklıkların, çoğu da kendi ahlak anlayışlarının mahpusudurlar, ancak hepsi devletin hapishanesinde tutulmaktadırlar. YOL, altı mahkumun ev izni için çıktıkları seyahati anlatırken, Türkiye’nin beşeri bir haritasını çiziyor. Bu filmle, insanların, özellikle de Kürtlerin ve kadınların nasıl baskıya uğradığını seyrediyoruz. Ataerkil yapıların ve ahlakın nasıl baskının parçası olduğunu izliyoruz. Hikaye, koşulların onları sürüklediği güzergahlara ilerleyen üç mahkumun, yani Seyit Ali, Mehmet Salih ve Ömer’in yazgıları üzerinden anlatılmıştır. Bu mahkumların umudu, hapishanenin aşağılayıcı koşullarını unutmak ve hanelerindeki en acil meseleleri çözmek için bir haftalık izin süresinin yeterli olmasıdır. Yıkılan hayalleri ise yenilgilerini daha çarpıcı hale getirmektedir. Özgürlük günlerinde takdir görecek bir hayat için çıkarlar bu yola! Ömer devletten kaçar, Mehmet vurulur ve Seyit Ali de kendi tereddüdünün esiri olmaya devam eder. Daha iyi bir hayat için verilen kavga devam etmelidir ve uzun sürecektir…
Yılmaz Güney, Paris 1982

Biletler: www.hofkino.berlin

 

YOL – The Full Version | Australien

@ CINEMA REBORN Sydney | 02 – 06 May 2019

@ CINEMA MERCURY Adelaide | 20 May 2019

>>> Program Notes by Jane Mills

Jane Mills is an Associate Professor at UNSW. With a production background in journalism, television and documentary film, she has written and broadcast widely on screen literacy, cinema, censorship, feminism and human rights.
Jane is Series Editor of Australian Screen Classics and a member of the Sydney Film Festival Film Advisory Panel.
Her films include: Yılmaz Güney: His Life, His Films (C4) and Rape: That’s Entertainment? (BBC).
Her books include: The Money Shot: Cinema, Sin and Censorship, Jedda, and  Loving and Hating Hollywood: Reframing Global and Local Cinema.

YOL – The Full Version | Kurdische Film Woche | München

Im Rahmen der Kurdischen Filmwoche in München, im Februar 2019:
Vortrag und 3 Diskussionen mit Donat Keusch.

Organisiert vom Verein zur Förderung ethnischer Minderheiten e. V., München.
Der Verein zur Förderung ethnischer Minderheiten e.V., Mitglied beim Verband der Vereine aus Kurdistan e.V. (KOMKAR), tritt für die Rechte der kurdischen Migranten in Deutschland und für ein gleichberechtigtes und friedliches Zusammenleben mit Deutschen und anderen Bevölkerungsgruppen ein. Er setzt sich für die Integration der Migranten in der deutschen Gesellschaft ein sowie für Humanität und Völkerverständigung auf Grundlage der allgemeinen Menschenrechte.

Munich (Germany), Kurdish Film Week 2019