Yılmaz Güney (né Pütün; 1 April
1937 – 9 September 1984) was a Kurdish film director, screenwriter, novelist, and actor. He quickly rose to prominence in the Turkish film industry. Many of his works were devoted to the plight of ordinary working-class people in Turkey. Güney won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in
1982 for the film Yol he co-produced with Şerif Gören. He was at constant odds with the Turkish government because of his portrayals of Kurdish culture, people and language in his movies. After his conviction in a trial in
1974 for killing a judge, something Yılmaz claimed to be innocent of, he fled the country and later lost his citizenship. One year before his death, in 1983, he co-founded the Kurdish Institute of Paris together with the Kurdish poets Cegerxwîn and Hejar among others.
Early life and education
Yılmaz Güney was born in
1937 in the village Yenice in Adana Province. His father, Hamit, was from Siverek in Şanlıurfa Province, and moved to Yenice after both of his brothers were murdered. His mother was a Zaza from Varto in Muş Province. His parents migrated to Adana to work as cotton-field laborers. As a result of his family background, young Yılmaz grew up among the working class. Besides working in the cotton fields he also had several jobs, including movie delivery boy, horse-cart driver, and writing short stories for a local magazine His first article was published in August 1955, his first poem a week later, while he was still attending high school.] This writing brought him into difficulty, especially a short story he wrote about a person aiming for a better world, which was deemed communist propaganda and for which he had to stand trial. These experiences laid the ground for his future work, which generally focused on a realistic portrayal of the downtrodden and marginalized strata of the population in Turkey. In 1957, Güney studied law at Istanbul University for about two months but was drawn into the film industry, in which he had already connections from his time in Adana. In Istanbul he met Yasar Kemal, who connected him with other people from Adana working in the film industry in Istanbul.
Career in Turkey
As Yeşilçam, the Turkish studio system, a handful of directors, including Atıf Yılmaz, began to use cinema as a means of addressing the problems of the people. State-sanctioned melodramas, war films, and play adaptations had mostly previously been played in Turkish theaters.[ These new filmmakers began to shoot and screen more realistic pictures of Kurdish and Turkish life. Yılmaz Güney was one of the most popular names to emerge from this trend, a gruff-looking young actor who earned the moniker Çirkin Kral (the Ugly King in Turkish) or paşay naşirîn in Kurdish. After working as an apprentice screenwriter for and assistant to Atıf Yılmaz, Güney soon began appearing in as many as 20 films a year and became Turkey's one of the most popular actors.
He was accused of communist propaganda just weeks after having settled in Istanbul in
1957 and sentenced in May
1958 to seven and a half years imprisonment, a verdict against which he appealed. This conviction lead to his dismissal by his conservative employer, but brought him a new employment from the left-wing Atıf Yılmaz who was working on a movie from Yaşar Kemal. For his new job, he also chose the name for which he known for today, Yılmaz Güney.] It was Atif Yilmaz who introduced him into a career as an actor which began in
1958 as the supporting actor in the movie The children of the fatherland (Bu Vatanın Çocukları) before becoming a main character the same year in the movie Alageyik. The appeals court In Istanbul reduced the prison sentence to one year and a half, but before he could enter prison, the juridical procedures were interrupted due to the coup d'état in 1960. He was then imprisoned on the 15 June
1961 on grounds of the verdict before the coup and released in 1962. In prison he wrote what some labeled a communist novel, They Died with Their Heads Bowed. He stayed loyal to his political left-wing connections throughout his career[21] and Güney's relationship with the authorities became even 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. From
1966 onwards he earned considerable amounts with his the movies he produced which gave him some financial freedom. He and his partner Nebahat Çehre able to leave the apartment in Beyoğlu and settle in uptown Levent. By
1968 he had formed his own production company, Güney Filmcilik. Over the next few years, the titles of his films mirrored the feelings of the underpriviliged people of Turkey in which he often portrayed a person struggling against the mighty and powerful: Kasımpaşa (''Kasımpaşalı''), Recep from Kasımpaşa, ('Kasımpaşalı Recep'') or the Cognac drinker (''Konyakçı''), all produced in 1965, are examples for such films.] Other movies he worked in are Umut (Hope, 1970); Ağıt (Elegy, 1972); Acı (Pain, 1971); The Hopeless and (1971). Umut is considered to be the first realistic film of Turkish Cinema, the American director Elia Kazan was among the first to praise the film; Umut is a poetic film, completely native, not an imitation of Hollywood or any of the European masters, it had risen out of a village environment.
After the military coup in March 1971, he was in pretrail for weeks, and he decided to leave Istanbul to evade further trouble with the authorities. Arrested for harboring anarchist students, Güney was jailed in
1972 during the preproduction of Zavallılar (The Miserable, 1975), and before completing Endişe (Worry, 1974), which was finished by Güney's assistant, Şerif Gören. This was a role that Gören would repeat over the next dozen years, directing several scripts that Güney wrote in prison.
Released from prison in
1974 as part of a general amnesty, Güney was re-arrested that same year for shooting Sefa Mutlu, the judge of the Yumurtalık district in Adana Province, to death in a night club as a result of a drunken row and given a prison sentence of 19 years. Güney has always declared his innocence.] During this stretch of incarceration, his most successful screenplays were Sürü (The Herd, 1978) and Düşman (The Enemy, 1979), both directed by Zeki Ökten. Düşman won an Honourable Mention at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival in 1980. While in prison, Kazan visited and supported him, believing he was jailed due to his political activism.
Güney's first marriage was with fellow Turkish actress and Miss Turkey, Nebahat Çehre, who co-starred alongside Güney in several films. Their relationship began in
1964 and they married in 1967. Prior to his marriage, Güney fathered a daughter, Elif Güney Pütün, from his relationship with Birsen Can Ünal.
Despite Güney and Nebahat Çehre's divorce in 1968, many of those closest to Güney have always regarded Çehre to have been the love of his life.
Later, Güney married Jale Fatma Süleymangil, more commonly known as Fatoş Güney, in 1970. Together, they had a son, Remzi Yılmaz Pütün.
Exile and death
In September 1980, Güney's works were banned by the new military junta. Güney declared, There are only two possibilities: to fight or to give up, I chose to fight. 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, 1983), made in France with the cooperation of the French government. Meanwhile, Turkey's government revoked his citizenship and a court sentenced him to twenty-two extra years in jail.
Yılmaz Güney died of gastric cancer on 9 September 1984, in Paris, France. He is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
[1]
Filmography
See also: List of Turkish films
Actor
• Alageyik (1958)
• Bu Vatanın Çocukları (1958)
• Tütün Zamanı (1959)
• Dolandırıcılar Şahı (1961)
• Tatlı Bela (1961)
• İkisi de Cesurdu (1963)
• Halime'den Mektup Var (1964)
• Her Gün Ölmektense (1964)
• Kamalı Zeybek (1964)
• Kara Şahin (1964)
• Kocaoğlan (1964)
• Koçero (1964)
• Mor Defter (1964)
• On korkusuz Adam (1964)
• Prangasız Mahkumlar (1964)
• Zımba Gibi Delikanlı (1964)
• Gönül Kuşu (1965)
• Haracıma Dokunma (1965)
• Kahreden Kurşun (1965)
• Kan Gövdeyi Götürdü (1965)
• Kanlı Buğday (1965)
• Kasımpaşalı (1965)
• Kasımpaşalı Recep (1965)
• Konyakçı (1965)
• Korkusuzlar (1965)
• Krallar Kralı (1965)
• Sayılı Kabadayılar (1965)
• Silaha Yeminliydim (1965)
• Sokakta Kan Vardı (1965)
• Tehlikeli Adam (1965)
• Torpido Yılmaz (1965)
• Üçünüzü de Mıhlarım (1965)
• Yaralı Kartal (1965) • Ben Öldükçe Yaşarım (1965)
• Beyaz Atlı Adam (1965)
• Dağların Oğlu (1965)
• Davudo (1965)
• Anası Yiğit Doğurmuş (1966)
• Arslanların Dönüşü (1966)
• At Avrat Silah (1966)
• Bomba Kemal (1966)
• Çirkin Kral (1966)
• Esrefpaşalı (1966)
• Law of the Border (Hudutların Kanunu; 1966)
• Kibar Haydut (1966)
• Kovboy Ali (1966)
• Silahların Kanunu (1966)
• Tilki Selim (1966)
• Ve Silahlara Veda (1966)
• Yedi Dağın Aslanı (1966)
• Yiğit Yaralı ÖlÜr (1966)
• At hırsızı Banus (1967)
• Balatlı Arif (1967)
• Bana Kurşun İşlemez (1967)
• Benim Adım Kerim (1967)
• Büyük Cellatlar (1967)
• Çirkin Kral Affetmez (1967)
• Eşkiya Celladı (1967)
• İnce Cumali (1967)
• Kızılırmak-Karakoyun (1967)
• Kozanoğlu (1967)
• Kuduz Recep (1967)
• Kurbanlık Katil (1967)
• Şeytanın Oğlu (1967)
• Kardeşim Benim (1968)
• Kargacı Halil (1968)
• Marmara Hasan (1968)
• Öldürmek Hakkımdır (1968)
• Pire Nuri (1968)
• Seyyit Han (1968) • Aslan Bey (1968)
• Azrail Benim (1968)
• Beyoğlu Canavarı (1968)
• Can Pazarı (1968)
• Aç Kurtlar (1969)
• Belanın Yedi Türlüsü (1969)
• Bin Defa Ölürüm (1969)
• Bir Çirkin Adam (1969)
• Çifte Tabancalı Kabadayı (1969)
• Güney Ölüm Saçıyor (1969)
• Kan Su Gibi Akacak (1969)
• Kurşunların Kanunu (1969)
• Çifte Yürekli (1970)
• İmzam Kanla Yazılır (1970)
• Kanımın Son Damlasına Kadar (1970)
• Onu Allah Affetsin (1970)
• Piyade Osman (1970)
• Sevgili Muhafızım (1970)
• Şeytan Kayaları (1970)
• Son Kızgın Adam (1970)
• Umut (1970)
• Yedi Belalılar (1970)
• Zeyno (1970)
• Canlı Hedef (1970)
• Baba (1971)
• Çirkin ve Cesur (1971)
• İbret (1971)
• Kaçaklar (1971)
• Namus ve Silah (1971)
• Umutsuzlar (1971)
• Vurguncular (1971)
• Ağıt (1972)
• Sahtekar (1972)
• Zavallılar (1975)
• Arkadaş (1974)
• Endişe (1974)
Director
• At Avrat Silah (1966)
• Bana Kurşun İşlemez (1967)
• Benim Adım Kerim (1967)
• Pire Nuri (1968)
• Seyyit Han (1968)
• Aç Kurtlar (1969)
• Bir Çirkin Adam (1969)
• Umut (1970)
• Canlı Hedef (1970)
• Piyade Osman (1970)
• Baba (1971)
• İbret (1971)
• Kaçaklar (1971)
• Umutsuzlar (1971)
• Vurguncular (1971)
• Yarın Son Gündür (1971) • Acı (1971)
• Ağıt (1972)
• Arkadaş (1974)
• Endişe (1974)
• Zavallılar (1975)
• Surü (1978)
• Düşman (1979)
• Yol (1982)
• Duvar (1983)