The Herd

Shot by Ökten under instruction from its writer Yilmaz Güney, at the time imprisoned for murdering a judge, this slice of social realism is never simplistic, always powerful as it follows the disintegration of a nomadic family of shepherds as they herd their sheep from the Anatolian pastures to the markets of modern Ankara. Problems abound: the traditional ways of the nomads - superstition, feuding, ignorance - are no better than the corrupt and exploitative officialdom of modern industrialised Turkey, although being poor and barely recognised as real human beings, the family are continually at the mercy of their more 'sophisticated' compatriots. Though never quite as telling or brilliant as the later Yol, it's a fine film that achieves its effect through its total sincerity and conviction.