• Documentary

The Ugly King

They called him The Ugly King! A myth, a hero, a film legend. Who was Yilmaz Güney? A highly talented director? A revolutioner? A murderer? A genius or a lunatic? Young director Hüseyin Tabak is looking for answers by doing research for a script about the Kurdish filmmaker from Turkey. Güney was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. Mainly for political reasons but also for murdering a judge. He started making movies from jail. His most famous film YOL won the Palm d'Or in 1982. Tabak visits different countries where he meets with Güney's family, his actors, prestigious filmmakers as Michael Haneke or Costa Gavras, former inmates and people on the streets for whom Güney is still a hero. But the deeper Hüseyin digs, the more the legendary ugly king appears human and vulnerable.

Data

Category
Documentary
Financing
Minority coproduction
Format
Digital Video, 122 Min
Approximate cinema release
Spring 2018
Release
25.05.2018
Distribution
FILMLADEN Filmverleih GmbH
Admissions
387
Funding Film Institute
128.146 €
Share of Austrian production costs
73 %
Share of total production costs
23 %
Television investment
35.000 €
Co-production

Mitosfilm (DE, 68%), MarangozFilm

International funding

Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein

Funding program
ÖFI
Film location
Turkey, Iraq, France, Germany, Austria
Shooting time
April - December 2014
Days of shooting
38
Completion
Summer 2017
Funding institutions Austria
Filminstitut
Credits
Production
Aichholzer Filmproduktion GmbH
Producer Austria
Josef Aichholzer
Director
Hüseyin Tabak
Script-concept
Hüseyin Tabak
DOP
Lukas Gnaiger
Editor
Christoph Loidl, Andrew Bird
Sound engineer
Tom Schön
Sound design
Atanas Tcholakov
Music
Judit Varga
Production manager
Sabine Hein
German Title
Die Legende vom hässlichen König
Television investment
ORF (Film/Fernseh-Abkommen)

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