The Wheel (Çark) (translated)

Drama and politics combine in Çark (The Wheel), a Turkish film that Muzaffer Hiçdurmaz directed in 1987. It turns to the least organized, most oppressed workers and is counted among the first purely worker-centred films in Turkish cinema. Bekir Yıldız and Haşmet Zeybek wrote the screenplay, Burak Film produced it, and Cahit Berkay and Cem Karaca composed the music. It runs about 89 minutes.

Four friends at a glass factory clash with their boss over unpaid labor and are thrown out. At a shipyard they find another system of exploitation and realize they are being used as strike-breakers; their last stop is the unregulated, unhealthy leather workshops of Kazlıçeşme. When a workmate dies in an accident, they raise awareness among the other workers and start a strike. Tarık Akan leads the cast as Rauf, with Müge Akyamaç, Cezmi Baskın, İhsan Yüce and Kenan Bal.

Originally titled Direniş (Resistance), the film was renamed Çark because the post-coup climate made the first title risky. That failed: the crew was questioned by police several times, cinemas pulled the film, and although never directly censored it could not open in Istanbul. Unseen for years, it first screened in Istanbul at a film history festival, later at the 2006 International Workers' Film Festival. It was Hiçdurmaz's only film as director.