The Poor

Zavallılar is a film directed by Yılmaz Güney and written by Yılmaz Güney and Atıf Yılmaz. Cast includes Yılmaz Güney, Yıldırım Önel, Göktürk Güney, Hülya Şengül, Hakkı Güvenç and Güven Şengil. It was produced by Güney Film. After Güney had begun to shoot the film he went behind bars due to the reason that he had sheltered anarchist students at home. The destiny of his film Zavallılar seemed to be similar with those other unfinished films like Eisenstein’s Que Viva Mexico!, and Marilyn Monroe’s Something's Got to Give. Güney planned to finish this film after his release, but as he winded up behind bars, he was unable to finish it. However, in the archives there were about a 30 minutes taped, and Atıf Yılmaz continued upon this with fundamental changes in the scenario. Thus, Zavallılar has a reputation as being an “outer” film of the man from the “inside”. In Güney’s films, prison has always been a symbol referring to the first or last station of the bad fate or of being trapped. Prison has been a part of both his films and his individual life. In Zavallılar, however, prison is a place sheltering poor, unemployed, and desperate people and a place where they can eat their fill.