Suru is a must see film by Yilmaz Guney, the great Turkish director. It was shot under very difficult conditions: Made just before the 1980 military coup while Guney was imprisoned. The title Suru (Herd) refers, not only to the sheep, but to man himself. The film tells the story of Berivan given in marriage to Sirvan to end the feud between two families. The bloodshed stops, but not the hostility. Berivan and Sirvan live with Sirvan's tyrannical father, Hamo, who resents Berivan and continuously berates her for being unable to provide his son an heir. Although Sirvan is a good, kind man, very caring and loving to his wife, he is unable to overcome his feudal values and confront his father, causing Berivan to retreat more and more into a silent existence. Finally very ill, possibly the toll caused by the years of verbal abuse she has suffered under Hamo, Sirvan wants to take Berivan to see a doctor in Ankara while going to sell his father's herd of sheep.
The journey westward to Ankara provides a backdrop to show the corruption and social injustices in Turkey or for that matter anywhere in the world. It is a story line rich with meaning about corruption, alienation, and social injustice in a Capitalist world, where the poor who are innocent suffer, while those who have prosper. The interplay between Berivan and Sirvan maybe somewhat weak, but the details shown in the film are what make the film worthwhile. For example, early in the train ride we see a crippled prostitute board on the train. Exploited because of her handicap, she in turn exploits others when she can, because that is the only way one can live in a capitalist world (Guney was a communist); or the example of the engineer and conductors of the train, who are refused a bribe and cruelly halt the train suddenly to hurt the sheep on board in revenge. The bleating of the poor sheep, an obvious reference to innocence, is literally heart-rendering. In fact, the whole film is heart-rendering and deeply moving.
