Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

gavin6942 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.

Sturgeon54 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.

chthon2 Yol tells the story of several prisoners on leave in Turkey. Seyit Ali (Tariq Akan) finds that his wife (Serif Sezer) has cheated on him, but when her family insists on an honor killing, he cannot make himself kill her. Mehmet Salih (Halil Ergun) was arrested after trying to pull of a heist with his brother-in-law, whom he abandoned as he was being shot by the police. His in laws want nothing to do with him, and he is forced to finally tell his wife Emine (Meral Orhonsay) the truth. Omar (Nedgmettin Chobanoglu) returns to his village to find that it has been caught up in Turkey's civil war, and is in ruins. They all must deal with how their worlds have changed since being behind bars.This film is so startlingly beautiful. I am not Turkish, but I am Muslim and speak some Turkish, and it was nice to see something from a Muslim director, who was not trying to copy Hollywood. This was a Turkish film, and Sherif Goren did not try to make it for anyone else. Turks are interesting people; their country has problems, and when they appear strong on the outside, on the inside, they always seem to be in pain, from their heart; yet, they always manage to be happy. They have great perseverence.Anyway, Yilmaz Guney wrote such a great script, he captured a peice of his culture a put it in a medium most people can understand. It's a masterpeice, giving a glimpse of people with a beautiful religion and culture that anyone could watch. An excellent film.

bobbymeizer 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.