在这部丑王传奇纪录片片中,他是生於土耳其的庫爾德人、政治異見者、當年獨裁政府眼中釘，飾演《醜王》（1966）亡命鐵漢聲名大噪，因誤殺被判刑十九年，卻在獄中寫了三部名揚海外的電影。尤馬茲瑾尼拍《自由之路》（1982，見115 頁）時正在獄中，排除萬難完成作品，之後流亡法國，與哥斯達加華斯的《大失蹤》（1982）分享康城金棕櫚獎，兩年後病死他鄉。塔貝克是米高漢尼卡的學生，深受瑾尼電影啟發，決定追尋他的足跡，走訪其親友、同囚、創作伙伴、合作過的演員，重組這位傳奇影人的真面目。
They called him The Ugly King. A myth, a hero, a film legend. Who was Yilmaz Güney? A highly talented director? A revolutionary? A murderer? A genius or a lunatic? Young director Hüseyin Tabak is looking for answers in THE LEGEND OF THE UGLY KING 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 Tabak digs, the more the legendary Ugly King appears human and vulnerable.
