Yilmaz Guney’s cinematic career, from his first movie in 1958 to his death in 1984, does not only touch four important decades of Turkish cinema, but also is under the immense influence of Turkish political dynamics. Besides, Yilmaz Guney became a prominent figure for the Kurdish population in Turkey during their struggle against the Turkish state. This paper will investigate the Yilmaz Guney cult in Turkish Cinema with a constant reference to the perspective of minority studies. A regard to Guney’s cinema after 1970 will unfold many aspects of pacification of Turkish left as well as the formation of Kurdish identity. Yilmaz Guney was not only a member of an ethnic minority, but he was also a member of an ideological minority. His transformation from a movie star of box-office hits to a social realist director of intellectually and cinematically acclaimed films promises a detailed analysis of Turkish cinema during its heyday years, corresponding to late 60s and early 70s. Such analysis is even more intriguing when Guney’s Kurdish origins are taken into account. Guney proclaims himself as “an assimilated Kurd” located in a political environment dominated by military coups every ten years from 1960 to 1980. Given the fact that his main challenge with the authorities rose from his socialism advocacy, when did his “Kurdishness” become such an important issue or how important was it for his cinema? What can Guney’s cinema tell us about the turmoil that the society was going through and its aftermath? How did Guney engage with the political and legal constraints binding his artistic creativity? How should we interpret constraining Guney? Was it suppressing the left or oppressing the Kurds; both, or more? By juxtaposing cinema studies with minority studies, this paper also aims to contribute to the interdisciplinary theoretical debates revolving around questions of interpretation of various categories at the intersections of identity, politics, and artistic expression.