The Road

Five Kurdish inmates are granted a week of home leave, and the world beyond the prison walls proves more exhausting than they expect. Seyit Ali, Zînê, Mehmet Salih, Emine, and Ömer return to streets they know but find new pressures closing in. Families press for conformity, neighbors weigh loyalties, and officials keep a wary eye on every step. The men and woman confront the pull of freedom against the baggage of years behind bars, the weight of tradition, and the fear that outside rules can be harsher than confinement. Small acts of kindness, quiet conversations, and the constant sense of risk fill these days, hinting at a larger struggle that reaches far beyond a single week. A quiet romance between Seyit Ali and Zînê adds a personal counterpoint to the public pressures.

Directed by Yılmaz Güney and Şerif Gören, The Road released in 1982 as a stark Turkish drama about oppression. It channels Güney's political sensibilities and the era's social tensions, foregrounding ordinary people caught between family duty and state power.

It won the Palme d'Or at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, a landmark international honor for a Turkish film and for Güney during a period of imprisonment. The prize underscored the film's fearless look at power, law, and personal fate.

The Road helped shape Turkish cinema by centering Kurdish voices and everyday struggles under heavy surveillance. Its blunt portrayal of social pressure and moral ambiguity influenced later directors and fed debates about censorship and representation in the country's film culture.

Critics praised the film for its stubborn realism, multiple perspectives, and its meditation on loyalty, tradition, and political resistance. Themes of confinement and the fragility of freedom run through the encounters on the road, offering a pointed look at a turbulent era.