Directed by Lütfi Akad • 1966 • Turkey
Starring Yılmaz Güney
Set along the Turkish-Syrian frontier, this terse, elemental tale of smugglers contending with a changing social landscape brought together two giants of Turkish cinema. Director Lütfi Ö. Akad had already made some of his country’s most notable films when he was approached by Yılmaz Güney—a rising action star who would become Turkey’s most important and controversial filmmaker—to collaborate on this neo-western about a quiet man who finds himself pitted against his fellow outlaws. Combining documentary authenticity with a tough, lean poetry, LAW OF THE BORDER transformed the nation’s cinema forever—even though it was virtually impossible to see for many years.
Restored in 2013 by the Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, Dadaş Films, and the Turkish Ministry of Culture. Restoration funded by Doha Film Institute.
Up Next in 30 Years of The Film Foundation
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Dry Summer
Directed by Metin Erksan • 1964 • Turkey
Starring Erol Taş, Hülya Koçyiğit, Ulvi DoğanWinner of the prestigious Golden Bear at the 1964 Berlin International Film Festival, Metin Erksan’s wallop of a melodrama follows the machinations of an unrepentantly selfish tobacco farmer who builds a dam t...
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A River Called Titas
Directed by Ritwik Ghatak • 1973 • Bangladesh
Starring Kabari Choudhury, Roushan Jamil, Prabir MitraThe Bengali filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak’s stunningly beautiful, elegiac saga concerns the tumultuous lives of people in fishing villages along the banks of the Titas River in pre-Partition East Benga...
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Hallelujah
Directed by King Vidor • 1929 • United States
Starring Daniel L. Haynes, Nina Mae McKinney, William FountaineHALLELUJAH is a cinematic milestone: the first feature from a major studio to star an entirely Black cast, and the first talkie made by titan director King Vidor. Infused with spirituals...
