Yılmaz Güney was a Kurdish film director, scenarist, novelist and actor. Almost all of his works are devoted to the plight of the Kurdish people.
Born in April first, 1937 to a Kurdish family in a village near the southern city of Adana, Turkey, his father was a Kurd from Siverek, Turkey and his mother was a Kurd from Varto, Turkey.
Güney studied law and economics at the universities in Ankara and Istanbul, but by the age of 21 he found himself actively involved in film-making.
The most popular name to emerge from the Young Turkish Cinema was that of Yılmaz Güney. Güney was a gruff-looking young actor who earned the moniker "Cirkin Kral" in Turkish, which means "the Ugly King" in English.
After apprenticing as a screenwriter for and assistant to Atıf Yılmaz, Güney soon began appearing in as many as 20 films a year and became Turkey's most popular actor.
In 1960 there were a coup in Turkey, as it's usual in Turkish history, which brought some political reform to Turkey, but not regarding Turkey, they restricted Kurdish people more than before, as the result Güney was imprisoned in 1961 for 18 months for publishing a "Communist" novel.
The country's political situation and Güney's relationship with the authorities only became more tense in the ensuing years. Not content with his star status atop the Turkish film industry, Güney began directing his own pictures in 1965 and, by 1968, had formed his own production company, Güney Filmcilik.
Over the next few years, the titles of his films mirrored the feelings of the Kurdish people: Umut which means Hope in 1970, Agit in 1972, Aci in 1971 and Umutsuzlar in 1971.
After 1972, however, Güney would spend most of his life in prison. Arrested for harboring anarchist students, Güney was jailed during preproduction on Zavallilar in 1975, and before completing Endise (1974), which was finished in 1974 by Güney's assistant, Şerif Gören. This was a cherished role that Gören would repeat over the next dozen years, directing several scripts that Güney wrote laboriously while behind bars.
Released from prison in 1974 as part of a general amnesty, Güney was re-arrested that same year for murdering a judge. During this stretch of incarceration, his most successful screenplays were Sürü (The Herd) (1978) and Düsman (1979), both directed by Zeki Ökten.
In an interview with journalist Chris Kutschera, Guney said:
"The Herd, in fact, is the history of the Kurdish people, but I could not even use the Kurdish language in this film; if we had used the Kurdish language, all those who took part in this film would have been sent to jail..."
After escaping from prison in 1981 and fleeing to France, Güney won the Palme d'Or at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival for his film Yol, whose director in the field was once again Şerif Gören. It was not until 1983 that Güney resumed directing, telling a brutal tale of imprisoned children in his final film, Duvar, the Wall in 1983, made in France with the cooperation of the French government.
Güney remains a highly controversial figure in Turkish and Kurdish political and art circles. His works are still highly regarded by cinema critics.
Read my previous post about this great man:
Yilmaz Guney talking about being Kurd
More coming about this great man.
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