Yılmaz Güney
1 April 1937 – 9 September 1984
Yılmaz Güney was a Turkish film director, screenwriter, novelist and actor of Kurdish descent. A popular leading man in the 1960s, he turned to directing socially engaged films such as Umut and, while imprisoned, wrote and directed by proxy the film Yol, which shared the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1982. He escaped from prison in 1981 and died in exile in Paris.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Yılmaz Güney.
- Adonis (1930–present) Overlapped 47 years →
- Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000) Overlapped 47 years →
- Akio Morita (1921–1999) Overlapped 47 years →
- Alan Paton (1903–1988) Overlapped 47 years →
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Overlapped 47 years →
- Alice Munro (1931–2024) Overlapped 47 years →
Life events
Yılmaz Pütün was born into a family of Kurdish farm labourers near Adana.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe began university studies but left to work in the film industry.
He was convicted over a story he had written and served the sentence before returning to acting.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe film, about a poor Adana carriage driver, marked his turn toward realist cinema and was banned in Turkey.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFatoş Güney later managed his film company and preserved his archive after his death.
He was jailed for sheltering left-wing students and released in a 1974 amnesty.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAfter a restaurant altercation in Adana in 1974 he was convicted of murdering judge Sefa Mutlu and sentenced to a long prison term.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWhile on leave from prison he left Turkey and settled in Paris, where he completed the editing of Yol.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWritten by Güney and directed on his instructions by Şerif Gören, Yol shared the top prize with Costa-Gavras's Missing.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgGüney died of stomach cancer in Paris at the age of 47 and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Source: en.wikipedia.org