Customer Reviews

Yol / The Road (DVD)

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Yol is the story of five prisoners who are released under condition for a week and come back home to visit their relatives, friends in their villages. Most of the movie turns around the trip home back of two Kurdish guys, one of them will decide not to come back to the prison and join the Kurdish revolutionary army. When arriving home, another of the prisoners finds out that his wife has been sentenced to live together with pigs, as she was found guilty of adultery (or even prostitution) by the guy's relatives. He is asked to kill hner, but he decides to place his trust in God. So, man, wife and their son leaves the village walking to a high pass up on the mountains, the woman clothed only in her light wedding dress. This is the most moving section of the film. We face with a number of different emotions and situations in Turkey ("a prison holding 45 milion people both inside and outside") of the 1970s. The movie was finished by followers of the director (Yilmaz Guney), who himself was able to escape from a Turkish prison and reach Europe, but he died before the movie was finished. He won a prize in Cannes Festival. I recommend it strongly.

When I saw this movie on VHS many years ago (13 years ago!) as a teenager about to enter college it was absolutely moving and I watched it several times over a couple years. The movie follows 5 prisoners on a short furlough who are released to their homes for a week. They go in separate directions and have very different experiences -- none of which are particularly happy but each story is rendered beautifully.

As mentioned in the reviews on the VHS thread (someone should combine the two) you should note that the film was created by the director in prison and filmed primarily by his assistants. Aside from authorship issues, this may clue you in to the fact that this is not be a particularly kind mirror on Turkish society, and I am not Turkish so I do not dare attest to the authenticity. But I can say that as an Asian kid who grew up in America, this was an incredibly moving and emotional film.

I have to admit that in this past decade I have now regressed in my movie preferences and that I generally only watch Hollywood blockbusters, so the odds are I may not watch this movie anytime soon. But for those who aren't addicted to fast paced flicks(unlike me nowadays) and watch movies to feel (and not just feel happy at the end) this movie is well worth checking out.