Censored for 33 years, this Western narrowly escaped destruction

Western border law has been gone for 33 years! It lasts 1 hour and 16 minutes and tells the story of Hydir, who lives in the Turkish village of Deliviran, which is located near the Syrian border. Contraband is everywhere there, and Hydir, who was far from it, unwittingly finds herself in the heart of this destructive and destructive world.

Turkish Clint Eastwood titles

The finished film bears little relation to the original project. It’s 1964, and Turkish director Lutfi Omer Akad, although retired, agrees to return behind the camera at the urging of young actor Yılmaz Guni (27 at the time), whose action films are often compared to action films. by Clint Eastwood in the 70s and 80s.

according to criteria file Accompanying the film, Akkad completely rewrites the rather strict scenario proposed by Gyun to make it different: on the topic of the border separating Syria from Turkey and smuggling between the two countries, the filmmaker decides to go to the field and write a film as close as possible to the current reality of the country.

The film has been censored for 33 years

Rather than a Western in the traditional sense of the subject matter, Border Law is neorealistic in the sense that it explores more the social evolution of this part of Turkey after the repressive period, where there is no entertainment. Classic Hollywood Western feel.

For its political subject, quite unprecedented in Turkish cinema at the time, the film was pure and simple censorship.

After the coup in 1980, the Turkish government tried to erase the film from memory, seizing all copies and negatives of the film and destroying them. But the director’s daughter managed to save a copy, which was restored by the Cinematheque of Bologna in 2013.

Hard to see in France, Border Law was released in the Criterion Collection, along with five other “world” films by Martin Scorsese, or in a duo with Taipei Story, Edward Yang’s Taiwan film released in 1985.