When five Kurdish prisoners are granted one week's home leave, they find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.4/10
IMDb: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
TMDB: 7.3/10
Production
Cactus Films, Güney Film, Antenne 2, SRF
Cast
Tarık Akan, Şerif Sezer, Halil Ergün, Meral Orhonsay, Necmettin Çobanoğlu, Hikmet Çelik, Tuncay Akça, Sevda Aktolga, Güven Şengil, Hale Akınlı, Turgut Savaş, Hikmet Taşdemir, Engin Çelik, Osman Bardakçi, Enver Güney, Erdoğan Seren, Güngör Bayrak, Hasan Yıldız, Semra Uçar, Erdal Özyağcılar
Curator Review
Verdict
A searing political drama that turns a simple prison furlough into a devastating portrait of oppression, patriarchy, and national trauma. Its power comes from the collision of intimate family stories with a wider social indictment, and from the film’s bleak, unforgettable imagery.
Best for
viewers drawn to political cinema and historical allegory
fans of bleak, emotionally heavy dramas
people interested in Turkish or Kurdish cinema
audiences who appreciate films shaped by censorship and resistance
Skip if
you want a fast-paced or plot-driven experience
you prefer hopeful or uplifting dramas
you are sensitive to violence, coercion, or grim social realism
you dislike episodic storytelling with a loose, mosaic structure
Overview
A landmark of Turkish political cinema, this film uses the premise of five prisoners on home leave to expose a society ruled by fear, custom, and state violence. What begins as a journey home becomes a series of brutal reckonings, where family, honor, and survival all feel compromised by the same oppressive system.
Worth noting
The film’s strength is its accumulation of pain: each segment reveals a different form of captivity, whether legal, cultural, or emotional. It is austere but never empty, and its moral anger gives the whole work a tragic momentum.
Bottom line
Even without knowing the production history, the film feels like something made under pressure, with urgency in every frame. It is not an easy watch, but it is an essential one for anyone interested in cinema as witness, protest, and national self-examination.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Edgar Cochran ✝️🍋 (4.5★) · 112 likes
My second favorite Yilmaz Güney film.
For those that have ventured well enough into classic Turkish cinema, that infamous name must be familiar. Imprisoned FOUR TIMES during his life from 1960 to his death in 1983, he became one of the most popular actors during the 60s and one of the most prolific Turkish screenwriters of the industry for his time, and an exceptional indirect director, as many directors, from Şerif Gören to Zeki Ökten, would follow Güney’s specific instructions… more
Rıdvan Aslan (4.5★) · 103 likes
– Bak, benimle evlenince öyle başka erkeklerle konuşmak, istemediğim giysileri giymek, dışarı çıkmak, etrafa bakmak yok ona göre.
+ Bana çok uzun mektuplar yaz ama sakın bizim adrese gönderme, babam kızar.
– Senin baban da çok geri kafalıymış.”
Paul Elliott (3.5★) · 72 likes
Yol is a profoundly political film which metaphorically hypothesises that the destiny of Turkey is one which is fundamentally restrained by its tragic history. It narratively involves five prisoners who are permitted a week's parole to travel home and pulsates with noticeable anger while it glides effortlessly into a universal allegory. With a script penned by Yılmaz Güney while incarcerated as a political prisoner and directed by Şerif Gören, from detailed instructions from Güney, the negatives were then smuggled to Switzerland… more Yol is a profoundly political film which metaphorically hypothesises that the destiny of Turkey is one which is fundamentally restrained by its tragic history. It narratively involves five prisoners who are permitted a week's parole to travel home and pulsates with noticeable anger while it glides effortlessly into a universal allegory. With a script penned by Yılmaz Güney while incarcerated as a political prisoner and directed by Şerif Gören, from detailed instructions from Güney, the negatives were then smuggled to Switzerland… more
Anastasia ✄ (3★) · 55 likes
I really wanted to rate this 3 stars and leave it without a review because I'm exhausted, but I feel like it'd be disgraceful. It is a really, really powerful movie, especially the last shot and the snowy sequences, and it deserves recognition for its boldness, but the narrative is just my fave, and it just caught me in the wrong mood.
enes (4★) · 49 likes
yapıldığı dönemde filmi izlemenin bile yasak olduğu kötü, baskıcı ve faşist bir sıkı yönetim altında böylesine harika ve cesur bir iş yapmak çok büyük saygıyı hak ediyor..
cezaevinin bir haftalık verdiği izinle memleketlerine yolculuğa çıkan beş mahkumun hayatlarına konuk ediyor bizi film..
bu yolculuklarında yaşadığımız topraklar onlara bir çok acı olay yaptırıyor ve yaşatıyor..
terör, töre, örf ve adetler, namus, acımasızlık ve cinayet..
sadakatin, sevginin ve insan olmanın önüne geçen bir sürü anlamsız ve can sıkıcı coğrafya manzarası..
bu birbirinden… more yapıldığı dönemde filmi izlemenin bile yasak olduğu kötü, baskıcı ve faşist bir sıkı yönetim altında böylesine harika ve cesur bir iş yapmak çok büyük saygıyı hak ediyor..
cezaevinin bir haftalık verdiği izinle memleketlerine yolculuğa çıkan beş mahkumun hayatlarına konuk ediyor bizi film..
bu yolculuklarında yaşadığımız topraklar onlara bir çok acı olay yaptırıyor ve yaşatıyor..
terör, töre, örf ve adetler, namus, acımasızlık ve cinayet..
sadakatin, sevginin ve insan olmanın önüne geçen bir sürü anlamsız ve can sıkıcı coğrafya manzarası..
bu birbirinden… more