Mehmet Kala

Thirty years after the 1980 coup, the paths of a family whose lives were shattered cross again. Deniz and Devrim, two siblings who never knew each other and were forced to grow up separately, reunite with their mother, Melek. Each of them harbors anger and longing that they have kept hidden for years. The three will revisit the past, confront each other for the first time in their lives, and try to piece the broken pieces back together.

A quirky receptionist in a hotel in Istanbul welcomes guests as they tumble upon their daily struggles, all to end up in a mix of chaos and dread after the arrival of a mysterious man who declares that he is their patron Saint.

Groom's Block is slang in Turkey for prison sections holding those accused of serious sex crimes. The film's story and characters are drawn from everyday life. In the Groom's Block, the guards and prison governor manipulate tensions, as prisoners push each other to the edge of existence. We experience the tension and paradox of a violent prison and justice systems reflecting the shifting moral norms and structure of Turkish society. The jailed and jailers enforce violent justice daily, expressing in their lives a society confronted with its need to hide from itself, in desperate denial of its cruel contradictions.

Having spent ten years of his life in prisons, Güney escaped from Isparta Semi-Open Prison in 1981 and went to Paris, where he would spend the last years of his life. The recognition Güney received as a filmmaker in France brought him the Palme D'or at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival for his film "The Road." The documentary builds a bridge between France and Turkey through Yılmaz Güney, tracing his footsteps in Paris, the filming process of "The Wall," the lives he influenced through his political struggle and cinema, and the stories of those who were forced to leave their country after September 12th, who came to France as immigrants, his friends and colleagues, and the life stories of exiled people whose paths somehow intersected with his during this journey.