Yol is an excellent movie in many respects. Acting is top notch, story has both substance and depth, cinematography is powerfully imposing and a beauty to watch, pacing and delivery is mature and well executed.
That's all great but the real significance of this movie in my opinion is that it completes Guney's transformation from populist cinema to realist cinema. In this regard, members of the audience are given more freedom to come to their own conclusions, no embellishments or exaggerated/highlighted descriptions to make a point, no effigies to burn for the sake of an argument... subtle metaphors and a bleak, at times disheartening tone of delivery does the job just as well.
This is Guney at his best and I feel privileged to have watched it in its 1999 reshowing, at 18 years of age, soon after the ban on the movie was lifted in Turkey. Unfortunately for 17 years, Guney's Yol was considered to be forbidden fruit by the gatekeepers of the oppressive Turkish regime. Now that the director has long passed away, his criticism lives on stronger than ever, in a bittersweet twist of irony.
That's all great but the real significance of this movie in my opinion is that it completes Guney's transformation from populist cinema to realist cinema. In this regard, members of the audience are given more freedom to come to their own conclusions, no embellishments or exaggerated/highlighted descriptions to make a point, no effigies to burn for the sake of an argument... subtle metaphors and a bleak, at times disheartening tone of delivery does the job just as well.
This is Guney at his best and I feel privileged to have watched it in its 1999 reshowing, at 18 years of age, soon after the ban on the movie was lifted in Turkey. Unfortunately for 17 years, Guney's Yol was considered to be forbidden fruit by the gatekeepers of the oppressive Turkish regime. Now that the director has long passed away, his criticism lives on stronger than ever, in a bittersweet twist of irony.