Yılmaz Güney
| Yılmaz Güney | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Born |
1 April 1937 Yenice, Karataş, Turkey |
| Died | 9 September 1984 (aged 47) Paris, France |
| Other names | Çirkin Kral (Ugly King) |
| Occupation |
Film director Screenwriter Actor |
| Years active | 1958 – 1983 |
Yılmaz Güney (born Yılmaz Pütün, 1 April 1937 – 9 September 1984) was a Turkish film director, scenarist, novelist, and actor of Zaza, and Kurdish origin, who produced movies in Turkish. He quickly rose to prominence in Turkish Film Industry. Many of his works were devoted to the plight of ordinary, working class people in Turkey. Yılmaz Güney won the Palme d'Or with the film Yol he co-produced with Şerif Gören at Cannes Film Festival in 1982. At constant odds with then Turkish Government, he fled the country and later lost his citizenship.
Yılmaz Güney was born in 1937 in the Yenice county of Adana. His father was Zaza from Siverek and his mother was Kurd from Varto. His parents migrated to Adana to work as cotton field laborers. As a result of his family background, young Yılmaz grew among the working class. This was a strong background for his future works which generally focused on a realistic portrayal of downtrodden and marginalized strata of the population in the country. Güney studied law and economics at the universities of Ankara and Istanbul, but by the age of 21 he found himself actively involved in film-making.
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 Turkish/Kurdish 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 (Sorani dialect). 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.
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