A group of smugglers keeps one step ahead of the police in Güney's tough Turkish Western, part Wild Bunch, part “hymn to. . . the freedom from oppression” (Fernando Herrero). Colorful naive sketches open the film, establishing a folklorish tone for what is to come: a timeless tale of violence and revenge set in an almost mythical, Peckinpah-like village of endless poverty and brutality. (As in The Hungry Wolves, the setting turns out to be contemporary Turkey). Güney's elemental combination of Hollywood Western and Third World cinema creates a hypnotic effect, told with Shakespearean emotional grandeur and direct, primitive realism.