Bus, The

The Bus

The Bus is the first film of Okan. As the shooting of the film which started with a very insufficient budget in Sweden in 1974 extended, Okan had the chance to realize the film on a trial-error basis. The fact that he, having done no previous work on the technical side in cinema except for tiny contributions to the scripts of some films, astonished the local press, and the film was considered to be a big surprise. Okan has, in spite of some misgivings, told the drama of people who have set off from Anatolia and fallen into a completely different reality, with a language that may be deemed superior for a first film, and managing to give The Bus a taste of symbolic cinema, he has presented with a naïve look to what extent has capitalist society and the ruse called civilization made egomaniacs of people alienating them from each other, making them ruthless and materialistic, plus telling the helplessness of the rural people face to face with technology. However, it seems that censors were not pleased with the image of migrants from Anatolia who eat wastes from garbage bins or get on moving the moving stairs from the wrong side making fools of themselves, so the release of the film forbidden in Turkey and it was only released later through the decision of the Council of State. In fact Okan while he reflected the reality of the East and West at extreme ends, has put more blame on the corrupt order of the Western society hidden under a mask of civilization and can ultimately be said to somewhat prefer the East. The short synopsis that Tunç Okan has written was inspired by a piece of news in the papers and shot is as follows: Nine Turks who wanted to take refuge in foreign lands, hoping for a better life, set off with an old bus towards Stockholm, relying on a fellow citizen. After encountering all sorts of difficulties they do manage to get there. However the driver parks the bus on a square in Stockholm and leaves it under the pretext of taking care of official procedure, taking with him the passports and the money of the nine would be workers, warning them not to leave the bus under any circumstances. Staying in for a long time, they finally have to get out due to hunger and meet the world outside the bus. Cumhur Canbazoğlu