User Reviews

Yusuf (Tuncay Akça) wants after a long time, to find a woman, but at the first military roadblock, he is taken into custody having lost his papers. His journey is over as it will take several days to verify who he is.

Seyit (Tarik Akan) looking forward to his wife and son. But arriving home he learns that his wife was unfaithful to him and she was subsequently banished from the family. She is held in a dungeon and tradition demands that he kills her.

Mehmet (Halil Ergün) is facing the vendetta, since by his fault his wife's brother died. Her family is furious that he wants to take his wife and children to flee with them.

Ömer (Necmettin Çobanoglu) arrives in his native Kurdish village and sees the military engaged in a policy to kill everyone who does not obey.

Meviat (Hikmet Çelik) takes the place of his deceased brother in the family, but it quickly becomes clear to him that the supposed freedom hardly differs by religious and tradition-bound pressure of a prison.

All have dreams of what they will do in their short freedom, but those dreams are quickly dashed. They find that those who are not in a concrete prison are in a prison made by social tradition and by the government. The only freedom available in Turkey at this time is death.

Five prisoners are given permission to visit their homes, and they get on their ways. Once out, we discover that we all live in a big prison, on endless roads which start and seem not to end. All roads end. Eventually. Absolutely harsh, touching, fierce, itching and scratching, disturbing movie about reality. A must see for those who have their own cliché definitons of how a "road movie" must be like.

Yol has a very special place in Turkish cinema.It is a masterpiece in my opinion.What makes Yol different from other Turkish films.The most important reason is that it comes from its own culture.It doesn't try to imitate American films or some others.It has its own way.This is really very important in building a film.When Turkish directors catch this point like Yýlmaz Güney I believe very good Turkish films will exist in the future.

I am completing a thesis on Turkish cinema. I have seen many Turkish films, and I think this is definitely one of the five best and certainly the best one of its' era though the underrated "Polizei" which "Yol"'s co-director Serif Goren helmed is right up there. "Yol" is amazing for many reasons. I have heard some amazing Hollywood back stories of how films like "MASH" and "Apocalypse Now" were hellish shoots. But, none of them matches what the filmmakers did on this project. "Yol" was secretly filmed, and the entire cast, which included box office icon Tarik Akan risked being blacklisted. The film was subsequently banned in Turkey until 1992, and it was not shown theatrically there until 1999. It is a scathing indictment of political and social oppression in Turkey in the early 1980s. Symbolism is used throughout the film, with birds representing freedom, horses representing virtue, and women representing oppression. Many Westerneners have labeled Yilmaz Guney, Turkey's best known director who envisioned "Yol" from his prison and then while in exile, a champion of feminist ideals. But, if one sees some of his earlier film like "Canli Hedef/Live Target" they might be in for a surprise (that film features an off-camera rape of a 10-year old girl). I like Guney's films but I agree with Serif Goren's assessment that his contributions to "Yol" were completely overlooked. Goren proved to be a capable director in his own right, and his film "10 Kadin/10 Women" is perhaps the essential film for expressing ideals which are sympathetic to feminism- a movement that I sympathize with in terms of Turkey, but am neutral towards in the West. "Yol" also deals with Kurdish suppression. One of the more poignant moments in the film comes when Halil Ergun's character comes to back to his hometown Diyarbakir (in Eastern Turkey) on the train during his prison leave. He comments how strange it is to be back home. The central theme of the film is that the oppressive elements of prison life are evident just as much on the outside. Personally, I think Turkey has made significant progress in recent years. It is a shame that except for Michael Moore, Barbara Kopple, and Tim Robbins, very few American film makers take these kinds of risks that Guney and Goren did with "Yol." In my view, the more recent Turkish film "Distant" has surpassed "Yol" as the best Turkish film ever made, but this is still a magnificent artistic achievement which can be merited as a classic in terms of international cinema.

This excellent movie shows how people in their life are the prisoner of their situation. The live in a world and society that expects them things to do and behave, and the do and behave as expected, even if they don't feel happy with it, or hurts them. They have to. This is a lesson for myself, and life as I experience it. Yhis is dramatically illustrated in the movie in the scene in which the husband is forcing his wife to go with him through the mountains, through the snow. Which has a bad ending. I remember this scene even more than 20 years after I saw it ever. This 'being prisoner of your situation' is not specific for the Turkish or any culture. I think it is typical for humans in general. Look around and you will see.

The artistry of this movie is astonishing in virtually every aspect of its filmmaking. What makes that all the more remarkable is that the footage was all shot by the assistant director in Turkey then taken to Switzerland for Yilmaz Güney (a brilliant writer/director who had to leave Turkey to escape persecution and imprisonment, mostly because of his empathy for the plight of the Kurdish people under Turkish rule) to edit and dub. The cinematography is colorful, rich and varied. The musical sound track is beautiful and well-integrated. The various subplots seem to echo and build on each other. Somehow, while making the grim realities of modern Turkey all too evident, this film also left me with a feeling of the indomitability of those who struggle for freedom.

I had no experience with Turkish or any Middle Eastern cinema before seeing this, and it made me want to see more films from this part of the world. It is essentially a travelogue with completely separate stories of several men and their encounters in various parts of Turkey during temporary furlough from a government prison. For example, one of these men is a Kurd, and another wants to take possession of his wife who disgraced him by having an affair while he was away in prison. All of these story lines remain completely separate throughout the film, and it is in this peculiar structure (different from an American movie like "Magnolia", where the stories interconnect in some way) where the film's greatest strength and weakness lie. The strength is that this is a great way for a Westerner like myself to get a good overall introduction to several aspects of Turkish society. The weakness is that the first half of the film is exceedingly difficult to follow; we never get a chance to know any of these characters, because the director constantly cuts from one storyline to the next, which caused me great confusion.

Despite the flaws, directors Goren and Guney display a true film-making talent here. This is one of the harshest movies I have ever seen, on a par with other films like "Pixote" in its unflinching brutality. These two directors have portrayed 1980s Turkey under a military dictatorship as a true hell on earth - a society stuck in the Middle Ages and obsessed with rigid, archaic, sometimes brutal Islamic customs.

With its muckraking tone, I doubt this film has ever been shown in even a comparatively free Arab country. I also imagine this will be a particularly difficult film to watch for women, as the traditional Islamic punishment for female infidelity is presented quite graphically. There are several agonizing scenes that remain frozen in my mind - especially one in which one of these prisoners must journey on foot with his wife and son through an isolated arctic wasteland. It is in scenes like this during the second half where the movie becomes truly involving. These scenes are so exceptional that it made me disappointed that this film wasn't better than it is; it had the real potential to be a masterpiece, but took too many amateurish missteps. Luckily, the missteps were not for lack of ambition.

I have seen this movie three times so far with intervals of a few years and got amazed more every time. I am Turkish and I was a teenager during the time period portrayed in the movie. I can say with great confidence that those days were presented with a great accuracy in many ways. It gives me an opportunity to evaluate the events of that period. The director (Serif Goren not Yilmaz Guney because Yilmaz Guney was a fugitive during the time the movie was shot) does a great job capturing the mosaic of Turkish culture during the trips of the 5 prisoners on leave for a week. The trip starts from Istanbul - from north-west and ends in the south-east. Editing job was not so great but it still kept the continuity of the story. On the other hand dubbing was terrible - perhaps the only bad thing about the movie - still you have to be a native Turkish speaker to see this flaw. I think the biggest contribution of Yilmaz Guney to this film was writing the major part of the script and producing this great film. A few facts: Yilmaz Guney was a fugitive who shot a judge during his trial. So, He was not a political prisoner. He wasn't a great actor but he was a good screen writer. There is not a city called Kurdistan in Turkey there never was. The people shown in the movie are Turkish citizens. People of Turkey are not just Kurds and non-Kurds there are tens of other ethnicities live in Turkey and they make the Turkish nation as a whole. It's amazing to see some people are still judging a whole nation by just seeing a movie.

And one goof: The guy in the ferry was drinking RAKI - the famous Turkish liquor- however during dubbing it was referred to as brandy.

Here you see how relative the ratings are. The original version 'Yol' (1982) got 8,2/10 and this 2017 full version 7,2/10. The full version, containing added material, is 2 minutes shorter by the way. Very strange. :-)

Bad photography. I felt dizzy most of the train and car scenes because of the vibration. Other than that, classical angles were unsmart either. I won't even mention the resolution and quality.

Story is very scrappy. Trying to be dramatic but couldn't manage it. Its like showing a crying child to make you feel bad. Very cheesy. The film tries to tell too much story but yet they are very shallow.

Only reason i ended up giving 2 stars is authenticity. As a eastern Turkish audience, i understand the post que era and the pressure upon kurdish citizens. Yilmaz Guney is very brave to shoot that kinda movie. Yet objectively this movie is disaster.

Palme D'or and other awards is just about the political aspect of movie. Doesn't even bother yourself to see it.

Turkey is officially the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, along with Israel. But "Yol" shows that regardless of Turkey's official classification, it does have political prisoners. In this case, five of them are given a leave so that they can visit their families. While on their leaves, they (and the audience) get to see the realities of life. They may have been released from prison, but there are some metaphoric prisons that we can never escape, no matter how free we consider ourselves.

It was interesting that Yilmaz Guney managed to make this movie from jail. He did a very good job here.

Thank Yilmaz Guney and Serif Goren for doing such a tremendous movie.Actings are excellent.This movie is the proof of the possibility to make great films with limited financial resources.Tarik Akan gives a perfect performance.The most I liked in the movie is the hesitation of Seyit Ali to leave Zine alone on the mount.Yol is a very well acted, edited, and directed movie.Of course it would be a great fault to forget the screen written by Yilmaz Guney.Thank people who gives us the opportunity to see "Yol" .

Powerful - is perhaps the best way to describe Yilmaz Guney's masterpiece, "Yol". The viewer is seized almost instantaneously and consumed within each struggling character. As the film progresses, the socioeconomic issues surrounding "Yol" deepen but its authenticity is never compromised. Guney manages to maintain the integrity of the Kurdish culture within the confines of the characters living under Turkish rule. Both cultures are shone in its bright and dismal colors, bringing attention to the repercussions that citizens endure due to the action of a powerful few. As expected, Guney manages to preserve accuracy throughout each thought provoking scene. One could only ponder what future great masterpieces Guney would have presented the world....He left us too soon….

A harsh portrait of Turkey, its people and its authorities, shown through the stories of five prisoners given a week's home leave, and the problems they encounter in adjusting to the world outside.

There are many things that can be taken from this film. One is just how much life and world changes when you're not looking. The men of this story return to the city and see vast differences. Granted, there has been a regime change, so the differences are massive. But if you return to any place after five or more years, you will see the world carries on.

The most interesting thing, though, is clearly the production. This may be the only film ever directed by someone who was not even on the set or at the location... because he was in prison. And then he escaped so he could edit! But it does raise the question of who the real director is, considering the person on-site really had the final say.

Yilmaz Guney's film "Yol" is one of the best movies that Turkish film industry has ever made. There are several reasons for that. The most important one is it says "Turkey is a prison weather you are in prison or not.". Since you have to wear uniforms in your school life, since you have to be a member of army for twelve months after 18, and since you have to say that I am Turkish, you can call yourself as a prisoner.

Yilmaz Guney reflected these problems of Turkey in a very realistic way. He saw his country as a beautiful place to live, but he was also responsible for his people to show the reality of Turkey. But it is completely wrong to say that he is ashamed to live in Turkey.

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.

I fear I'm going to be disrespecting a lot of people. Obviously this film has a great significance to many, in particular Turkish people. I however did not find any redeeming qualities.

I realize this is a film from 1982 from Turkey (a country not know for cinema) on what I assume is a very small budget. Even with that in mind, the film looks terrible in my opinion.

From the moment the film started I felt detached from it. Nothing is really given any context. The situation isn't sketched properly. The main characters aren't really introduced and at no point to I feel I get to know them.

When the film continues with what are supposed to be very dramatic, gripping, shocking and dramatic scenes they don't hit. Because they are just look snippets. Scenes with no context. They might be still photographs totally unrelated to each other and it would probably have had more of an impact on me.

To top all of that off, not a single "actor" in the film is capable of showing any kind of emotion. Everyone talks like there's reading their lines of a teleprompter and every actor around it seems to wait for their cue to come. I've seen news anchor's show more spontaneity and emotion. Nothing seems in any way organic.

When I was 13 years old I had to make a short film for a school project. I was the camera man and director. I was so disastrously bad though that in the final cut of the film you could hear me say "action" and "cut" in every scene. In Yol, I could almost hear the director here in every scene. Maybe I could get my school project released as well.

The review of the movie caught my attention. The cast the story the social life and Kurds social structure the women how they were treated, honor and revenge all these elements disclosed in the movie in such phenomenal way.

What touched me is when Mehmet came over to get his wife back admitting his mistake the scene where the kids watching.. or where Zene screaming her husband name to not leaving in mountain stranded for the beast and Seyit when he was carrying his wife slapping her to wake up. I give 3 thumb up.

I realized how important to look to my life in different perspective.

Mehmet "Halil Ergun and Tarik Akan" Seyit were the perfect husband in their own way.. I will look for their work from now on