Cinema and Media Studies Turkish Cinema
by
Diana Gonzalez-Duclert
  • LAST REVIEWED: 17 December 2019
  • LAST MODIFIED: 26 May 2016
  • DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0251

Introduction

Beginning with the 1982 Palme d’Or at Cannes for Yilmaz Güney’s Yol, Turkish cinema entered into the international forefront. This recognition and the classification of Yol as a “Turkish” film (made by a Turkish and Kurdish filmmaker) underline the overriding challenge of defining and categorizing a national cinema. Scholars, students, and their research have reflected this interrogation. Contemporary study has approached the evolution of Turkish cinema from its depiction of a state’s desire to unify a newly formed Republic (1923), through to a golden era of popular entertainment (Yesilçam), and continuing with today’s “New Turkish Cinema”—reflection on a nation’s traumatic social, political, and cultural past symbolized by metaphoric personal narratives. Through this recent film movement and its global recognition, a new generation of Turkish and world cinema film scholars, publishing in English, has emerged. It is a generation with academic rigor, courage, and commitment to re-examine the relation of Turkish cinema to a nation’s past and a “new cinema’s” relation to a current evolution in Turkish society’s political and social perspectives against state power. Turkish cinema has a long history. Most scholars date the first Turkish-made film at the beginning of World War I with Demolition of the Russian Monument at San Stefano by Fuat Uzkinay in 1914 (though its “first film” status remains disputed). However, extensive Turkish film scholarship is a quite recent development. A history of Turkish cinema was published in 1962 (interestingly, two years after the 1960 coup d’état), Turk sinema tarihi (A History of Turkish Cinema) by Nijat Özön (b. 1927–d. 2010) (Özön 1962, cited under History of Turkish Cinema: General History). More than twenty years later, a second prominent Turkish-Italian film scholar, Giovanni Scognamillo, wrote Türk sinema tarihi: 1896–1986 (History of Turkish Cinema: 1896–1986), though not published until 1990 (Scognamillo 1990, cited under History of Turkish Cinema: General History). Neither of these works has been translated into English; however, they have been well addressed and analyzed in an important essay on the historiography of Turkish cinema (Murat Akser, “Towards a New Historiography of Turkish Cinema” [Akser 2014, cited under Post-Yesilçam and the New Turkish Cinema]). The most innovative and vigorous work has emerged from the 1990s onward. Thematic analysis has centered on subjects that pertain to the Turkish state’s struggle to recognize its multiple ethnic, social, and cultural identities, all of which are subject matters relevant to many other Middle Eastern regions and diasporas. Identity, memory, women, minorities, exile, traditionalism, modernism, and nationalism are all reoccurring themes, yet defined differently throughout. The Turkish diasporic cinema, particularly coming out of Germany, has also come to the forefront of Turkish film scholarship. In the end, the fundamental question still permeates the recent works, as stated by Yilmaz Güney (cited in Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Turkish Cinema: Identity, Distance and Belonging): “Turkey is a country with several nations. For this reason, considering social contradictions and national differences, we must make films of ‘Turkey’ and not ‘Turkish films’” (Dönmez-Colin 2008, cited under Identity (Cultural, Ethnic, and National), p. 21).

General Overviews

Due to the newness of scholarship on Turkish cinema and the lack of English translations, general overviews on Turkish cinema are not extensive. Although perhaps less obvious as overviews, several works offer good starting points for students. Bayrakdar 2009 covers Turkish cinema in the context of the evolving transnationalism of Europe. Bayrakdar 1996– is an important scholarly journal, in Turkish, which covers new research on diverse areas of Turkish cinema. Despite the encyclopedic title of the Dönmez-Colin 2007 work, it is not a collection of brief general overviews, but rather, analytic essays by prominent academics on filmmakers and films which have become representative of various periods of Turkish film history. Needham and Eleftheriotis 2006 offers an entire chapter of three in-depth essays, which concentrates on the Yesilçam period and the theme of national identity. Despite only covering films up to 1983, Woodhead 1989 offers the most introductory overview. However, other works on the New Turkish Cinema will need to be consulted (see Post-Yesilçam and the New Turkish Cinema).

  • Bayrakdar, Deniz, ed. Türk Film Araştırmalarında Yeni Yönelimler. 1996–.

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    A leading Turkish film journal published yearly, which includes essays from prominent film scholars covering new research and changing paradigms for the history and analysis of Turkish cinema. In Turkish. (Title translation: New Approaches to Turkish Film Studies.)

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  • Bayrakdar, Deniz, ed. Cinema and Politics: Turkish Cinema and New Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2009.

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    This is a work that covers European cinema, thereby underlining the paradox of Turkish identity and cultural discourse with Europe. Topics include post-Yesilçam cinema, Turkish cinema industry and reception, cinema engagé, cinema diaspora, nationalism, and religion. Most themes are analyzed through a political paradigm. Useful for advanced students and researchers.

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  • Dönmez-Colin, Gönül, ed. The Cinema of North Africa and the Middle East. London: Wallflower, 2007.

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    Collection of essays by prominent academics. Four Turkish films are studied: Hope (Yilmaz Güney), The Bride (Lütfi Ö. Akad), The Bandit (Yavuz Turgul), and Distant (Nuri Belge Ceylan). Some analysis focuses on the filmmaker, the sociopolitical context, and the film’s reception, while others concentrate on filmic analysis. Useful for undergraduate students, and a starting point for graduate students concentrating on what are considered definitive films for these periods of Turkish cinema history.

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  • Ellinger, Ekkehard, and Kerem Kayi, eds. Turkish Cinema 1970–2007: A Bibliography and Analysis. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2008.

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    A source essential for beginning undergraduate and graduate students. Useful for all levels of research. First section is an extensive non-annotated bibliography (see also Bibliographies) as well as a brief but comprehensive history of Turkish cinema, genres, filmmakers, and films.

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  • Needham, Gary, and Dimitris Eleftheriotis, eds. Asian Cinema: A Reader and Guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.

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    The chapter with three sections on “Turkish National Cinema” focuses on how the Yesilçam period articulates a discourse (or not) on Turkish national identity. Analysis uses less Anglocentric theoretical models in defining whether or not a Turkish “national” cinema exists. Best for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

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  • Woodhead, Christine, ed. Turkish Cinema: An Introduction. London: University of London SOAS Turkish Area Group, 1989.

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    A comprehensive introduction to Turkish filmmakers and their films, as well as the social and political contexts that accompanied Turkish cinema from its beginnings (dated as 1914) to 1983. The cinematic industry as well as its aesthetics and basic theoretical topics are addressed at a level accessible to undergraduate students.

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Bibliographies

These two sources are excellent starting points for general and specialized research on Turkish cinema for both undergraduate and graduate students. Ellinger and Kayi 2008 is the most substantial bibliographical reference, which includes sources on the industry, history, as well as films and their filmmakers. Tabak 2008 was published for the 2008 Frankfurt Book Fair when Turkey was its guest of honor, a choice which stirred controversy because of Turkey’s freedom of speech issues. Regardless of this polemic, the Tabak 2008 source (written in English) is a worthwhile bibliography of mostly Turkish sources.

  • Ellinger, Ekkehard, and Kerem Kayi, eds. Turkish Cinema 1970–2007: A Bibliography and Analysis. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2008.

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    An extensive non-annotated bibliography of Turkish and non-Turkish sources essential for beginning researchers. It includes industry resources (film festivals, directors, films, actors). Sources listed are mostly English, Turkish, German, and Italian and are both specialized and nonspecialized, including websites. Useful cross-referencing is throughout.

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  • Tabak, Yeşim, ed. Cinema in Turkey: Textshop-Intercultural Communication Services. Istanbul: Frankfurt Book Fair, 2008.

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    A brief, descriptive source of publications on Turkish cinema. Includes more recently published works, with a synthesis of the books’ content and authors’ biographies. Despite being in English, the books are in Turkish; therefore, a good starting point for Turkish-reading students working on a general history of Turkish film studies.

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Dictionaries

Due to Turkish cinema scholarship being fairly recent (the majority beginning in the 1990s), there are only two sources defined and structured as a “dictionary” to date. Atakav 2013, an edition on its own but part of a series on world cinema, is a thematically based dictionary of films, actors, and the film industry. Dönmez-Colin 2014, edited by a prolific academic who also specializes in Iranian and Indian cinema, is the most recent dictionary, offering further critical analysis of Turkish fictional cinema.

  • Atakav, Eylem, ed. Directory of World Cinema: Turkey. Bristol, UK, and Chicago: Intellect, 2013.

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    A thematically organized dictionary offering an approachable insight into Turkish cinema. Themes such as early cinema, science fiction, women’s films, and film festivals are covered by prominent Turkish cinema scholars. A useful bibliography and list of online sources is offered as well. Very good source, particularly for beginning undergraduate students.

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  • Dönmez-Colin, Gönül, ed. The Routledge Dictionary of Turkish Cinema. Abingdon, UK, and New York: Routledge, 2014.

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    An up-to-date analytical dictionary of Turkish fictional cinema. Analyzes transnational elements in Turkish cinema history and provides critical analysis of Turkish cinema history, in general. Offers possible interpretations of films; useful for undergraduate and graduate scholars. Particularly valuable regarding “New Turkish Cinema” of the 1990s onward.

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History of Turkish Cinema

The beginning of Turkish-made cinema has been dated, by some scholars, as 1914 (Demolition of the Russian Monument at San Stefano by Fuat Uzkinay). However, extensive film production and what would be called the “golden era” of Turkish filmmaking (Yesilçam) did not begin until after World War II. Pre–World War II, up to 1945, approximately fifty films were locally produced and distributed. Post–World War II until the early 1970s saw a production of approximately 300 films. Afterwards, a gradual decline occurred until the 1990s when the “New Turkish Cinema” and its international recognition began to increase production and spectatorship. The earliest general and comprehensive analysis of Turkish cinema history is most often stated as the canonical works Özön 1962 and Scognamillo 1990. Arslan 2011 offers the most recent history, with a more modernized transnational and thematic perspective.

General History

Includes the beginnings of Turkish-made cinema but also the introduction of cinema in Turkey without concentrating strictly on one era. These works are the most general histories, with Basutçu 1996 (in French) and Arslan 2011 being the most recent and thereby including contemporary cinema.

  • Arslan, Savaş. Cinema in Turkey: A New Critical History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

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    Well-researched, academic, analytical work. Interesting exploration of deconstructing the notion of “national cinema” and “identity” in Turkish cinema, present in earlier Turkish cinema studies. Although structured chronologically, this is a more critical approach to Turkish cinema history that integrates a more diverse perspective that is less “nationally” based.

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  • Basutçu, Mehmet, ed. Le cinéma turc. Translated by Mehmet Basutçu, Jean-François Cornu, and Serra Yilmaz. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1996.

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    In French. A comprehensive and thematic source examining Turkish film history and Turkish culture in film, film movements, and the international reception of Turkish cinema. Themes presented include arabesque films, immigration, women (both in front and behind the camera), sexuality, animation, and documentaries.

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  • Özön, Nijat. Turk sinema tarihi. Istanbul: Artist Yayinlari, 1962.

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    In Turkish. One of the earliest comprehensive histories of Turkish cinema covers from 1896 to 1960. Some perspectives may be considered outdated. Nevertheless, Özön is an important figure in Turkish cinema’s historiography and is cited in many of his contemporaries. (Title translation: A History of Turkish Cinema.)

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  • Scognamillo, Giovanni. Türk sinema tarihi: 1896–1986. Istanbul: Metis, 1990.

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    In Turkish. Two volumes. Along with Özön 1962, one of the early definitive works on the history of Turkish cinema. (Title translation: History of Turkish Cinema: 1896–1986.)

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Pre-Yesilçam

Beginning with the late Ottoman period and later with the first Turkish-made film in 1914, this period concentrates on early filmmaking and the film industry. Most research concentrates on the time of the birth of the Turkish Republic (1923) with the exception of Balan 2013, which addresses the late Ottoman cinema as the beginning of an early form of transnationalism. Analysis of this pre- Yesilçam period also reveals the beginning of cinema as defining a Turkish national identity. Focusing on aesthetics, Özön 1995a and Özön 1995b investigated cinema’s heritage of the shadow plays (Karagoz), giving important clues to burgeoning aesthetic and narrative structures. This two-volume work (unfortunately for Anglophones) is only in Turkish.

  • Balan, Canan. “Early Filmmaking in Turkey: A Transnational History?” In Directory of World Cinema: Turkey. Edited by Eylem Atakav, 49–53. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2013.

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    An important and rare study of the historiographic challenge of pre-Turkish Republic cinema. This source concentrates on the analysis of early reception studies of two Ottoman-period silent films, which become case studies illustrating the research and theoretical challenges of constructing a Turkish film history. An essential and accessible source for early film history students.

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  • Bali, Rifat. Turkish Cinema in the Early Republican Years. U.S. Diplomatic Documents on Turkey II. Istanbul: Isis, 2007.

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    Interesting primary source of a study made in 1933 by Eugene Hinkle, Second Secretary of the United States Embassy in Ankara, concerning the motion picture market of Turkey. Films, censorship, movie houses, educational films, and press are covered. Excellent for research on American cultural reports during the early Turkish Republic.

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  • Özön, Nijat. Ilk Turk sinemacisi Fuat Uskinay. Istanbul: Turk Cinematek Dernegi Yayinlari, 1970.

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    In Turkish; however, important early cinema historian’s research on Turkey’s first known filmmaker. Important for general knowledge of Turkish cinema historiography. (Title translation: Fuat Uzkinay, the First Turkish Filmmaker.)

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  • Özön, Nijat. Karagoz’den sinemaya, Turk sinemasi ve Sorunlari I: Tarih, sanat, estetik, endustri, ekonomi. Ankara, Turkey: Kitle Yayinlari, 1995a.

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    In Turkish. Another important early work in Turkish cinema’s historiography, covering the subject of cinema and traditional Turkish shadow plays (Karagoz). (Title translation: Turkish Cinema and Its Problems from Karagoz to Cinema I: History, Art, Aesthetics, Industry, Economy.)

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  • Özön, Nijat. Karagoz’den sinemaya, Turk sinemasi ve Sorunlari II. Ankara, Turkey: Kitle Yayinlari, 1995b.

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    In Turkish. Second volume of the history of Turkish cinema and traditional Turkish shadow plays (Karagoz) by a prominent early Turkish cinema historian. (Title translation: Turkish Cinema and Its Problems from Karagoz to Cinema II: Criticism, Film Critiques, Cinema and Society, Control, Cinema and Television.)

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Yesilçam

Dates for this “golden era” period of Turkish filmmaking are usually placed from beginning of the late 1950s up to the early 1980s, after which more socially and politically engaged cinema emerged. Some scholars use the term “Yesilçam” to mean Turkish cinema in general. However, most use Yesilçam (translated literally as “green pine”) to refer to the period of cinema post–World War II to the early 1980s. Narratively and aesthetically, the Yesilçam era is characterized by historical epics, melodramas, and comedies with the frequent use of remakes, as noted in Gürata 2006. Because of its popular and commercial appeal, as seen by the high amount of production, this period is often analyzed as a way to approach defining national and cultural identity, particularly in terms of traditionalism versus modernity, as well as identities in regards to a growing globalization. Erdoğan 2006a and Erdoğan 2006b draw upon postcolonial theory to study this element of national identity, while Gürata 2006 concentrates on the “remakes” typical of this period to demonstrate constructions of identity and notions of modernity. Censorship during this era also played a role in these constructions, as underlined in Mutlu 2013. A rigorous historical source of the period is found in Yildirim 2014, one of the few French academic sources on Turkish cinema.

  • Erdoğan, Nezih. “Narratives of Resistance: National Identity and Ambivalence in the Turkish Melodrama between 1965 and 1975.” In Asian Cinema: A Reader and Guide. Edited by Gary Needham and Dimitris Eleftheriotis, 229–241. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006a.

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    Addresses national identity through the ambivalent and paradoxical relationship that the Yesilçam cinema, and melodramas in particular, have with other cinemas and other cultural productions. His methodology includes a use of postcolonial theory in order to address the effect these films have on the Turkish collective unconscious and vice versa.

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  • Erdoğan, Nezih. “Mute Bodies, Disembodied Voices: Notes on Sound in Turkish Popular Cinema.” In Asian Cinema: A Reader and Guide. Edited by Gary Needham and Dimitris Eleftheriotis, 243–255. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006b.

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    Analysis of sound dubbing during the Yesilçam period. Although it has a technical aspect, the approach is philosophical in its analysis of the “alienation” of the spectator, opposed to the realism attained in shooting with sound. Addresses the sense of unifying the body/mind duality in the post-dubbing technique. Good for advanced students.

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  • Gürata, Ahmet. “Translating Modernity: Remakes in Turkish Cinema.” In Asian Cinema: A Reader and Guide. Edited by Gary Needham and Dimitris Eleftheriotis, 242–255. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.

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    Little-addressed study of remakes (adaptations, spin-offs) in Turkish cinema, from 1960 to 1975. Focuses on using and reinterpreting remakes as a new means of addressing the question of national cinema, creating cultural identity and Turkish modernity. Good for advanced students concentrating on Turkish film analysis, Turkish cultural identity, and transnational influences.

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  • Mutlu, Dilek Kaya. “Film Censorship during the Golden Era of Turkish Cinema.” In Silencing Cinema: Film Censorship around the World. Edited by Daniel Biltereyst and Roel Vande Winkel, 131–148. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

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    Thematic analysis of the period 1960s–1970s when increased civil liberties threatened a national sense of unity (with the Constitution of 1961) and subsequent censorship increased. Good use of primary sources, such as government documents. Useful introductory source of historical and sociopolitical interpretations of Turkey’s film censorship practices.

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  • Yildirim, Tunç. Une periode emblematique du cinema turc: Le cinema de Yesilçam (1948–1971). Istanbul: Les Editions Isis, 2014.

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    In French. Rigorous work on the Yesilçam period. Provides an extensive list of primary and secondary sources. Covers early development of the period and its evolution, including development of social realism and changes in political orientations. Helpful for undergraduate students and advanced researchers. See also Turkish Cinema Industry and Reception. Title translation: An Emblematic Period of Turkish Cinema: Yesilçam Cinema (1948–1971).

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Post-Yesilçam and the New Turkish Cinema

Cinéma d’auteur and cinema “Post-Yesilcam” started slowly in the 1960s and 1970s, partially as a reaction and resistance to Yesilçam’s commercialism and lack of social engagement. Minority filmmakers began to find funding for their films, which became more political, engaging in a reflection of political, social, and economic inequalities as well as critiquing the power of the Turkish state and military. Kurdish filmmakers in Turkey began to emerge, such as Yilmaz Güney (b. 1937–d. 1984), whose films not only paved the way for a more social and political cinema recognized by the international film community, but also played a role in later film studies and analysis. Güney pioneered a path for more recent Kurdish filmmakers: Kazim Öz, Müjde Arslan, Özgür Dogan, Orhan Eskisoy, and Hüseyin Karabey. After Güney, the 1990s marked the birth of the “New Turkish Cinema,” a cinema that some scholars consider less obviously social or political, and more cinéma d’auteur (though by analyzing their metaphoric language, one could disagree). The New Turkish Cinema continues to evolve successfully, placing Turkey back in the forefront of the international film community. Awarded numerous times in Cannes and other international film festivals, one of the movement’s most prominent representatives is filmmaker Nuri Belge Ceylan. Out of eight feature films, five have earned prizes at Cannes, including the Palme d’Or for Winter Sleep in 2014. Other notable and prize-winning filmmakers of the “new” cinema include Zeki Demirkubuz, Reha Erdem, and the German-Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin, whose films represent the new cinema diaspora. Most recently, as of 2015, one of the few Turkish female filmmakers, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, has emerged onto the international scene with her first feature, Mustang. The New Turkish Cinema has not only created new filmmakers, filmic languages, and films, but also has changed the paradigm for Turkish film scholarship. New approaches, methodologies, and interpretations are present throughout the literature, covering the continual evolution of Turkish cinema. Akser and Bayrakdar 2014 is an excellent overview of collective essays, which encompasses all of these themes. For more specialized research, Suner 2010 offers an analysis on the influence of sociopolitical events on New Turkish Cinema, and both Dönmez-Colin 2006 and Zaim 2008 concentrate on the filmmakers themselves.

  • Akser, Murat. “Towards a New Historiography of Turkish Cinema.” In New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Edited by Murat Akser and Deniz Bayrakdar, 48–66. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    Important overview, analysis, and critique of the historiography of Turkish cinema. Useful introduction to major scholars and their work while examining the future of Turkish cinema scholarship and methodologies. Very good source for undergraduate and graduate students.

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  • Akser, Murat, and Deniz Bayrakdar, eds. New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    Essays by Turkish and Anglophone scholars. Examines themes defining “new cinema” such as new historiographies, political aesthetics, new technical aspects, genres, spatial relationships, memory, identity, and new film criticisms. Useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. (See Turkish Cinema Industry and Reception, Identity (Cultural, Ethnic, and National), Kurdish Cinema, Cinéma d’auteur, Women, and Urbanism/Space).

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  • Dönmez-Colin, Gönül. Cinemas of the Other: A Personal Journey with Filmmakers from the Middle East and Central Asia. Bristol, UK, and Portland, OR: Intellect, 2006.

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    Including a large portion on Turkey, this book offers interesting interviews, not only regarding the filmmakers themselves and their films, but also as a journal of historical, social, political, and aesthetic contexts of Turkish cinema from the post-Yesilçam period.

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  • Suner, Asuman. New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity, and Memory. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2010.

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    Examines new Turkish cinema in relation to sociopolitical upheavals and violence following the 1980 coup d’état. Two filmmakers are analyzed: Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Zeki Demirkubuz. Themes include memory, nostalgia, identity, and gender, culminating in a relation to a sense of “belonging.” Useful for both undergraduate and graduate students.

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  • Zaim, Dervis. “Your Focus Is Your Truth: Turkish Cinema, ‘Alluvionic’ Filmmakers and International Acceptance.” In Shifting Landscapes: Media and Film in European Context. Edited by M. Christensen and N. Erdoğan, 86–108. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2008.

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    Concentrates on filmmakers and films from the 2000s. Examines film reception in the global industry of production and distribution, including film festivals. Based on personal interviews, addresses how Turkish filmmakers and producers perceive the acceptance (or not) of their films by the Western industry. Useful for beginning and advanced research.

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Turkish Cinema Industry and Reception

General sources for the Turkish cinema industry and reception are not numerous. However, within the context of more specialized themes, there is excellent scholarship to be found particularly for more advanced undergraduate and graduate students. A rare study regarding Turkish spectatorship of American cinema and its ideologies is presented in Erdoğan 2005. Aside from the sociological study of Turkish summer theatres in Erkan 2014 and the industry during the Yesilçam in Yildirim 2014, emphasis is placed particularly on the cinema’s industry and spectatorship within an international context in regards to Eastern Europe in Behlil 2012 and international film festivals in Çelik 2014.

  • Behlil, Melis. “East Is East? New Turkish Cinema and Eastern Europe.” In A Companion to Eastern European Cinemas. Edited by Anikó Imre, 504–517. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

    DOI: 10.1002/9781118294376.ch26Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A dual identity of Turkey and its cinema is underlined through the perspective of Turkey as an Eastern European country. The essay addresses stylistic influences from Eastern Europe and Russia, while focusing also on institutional and production relationships.

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  • Çelik, Tülay. “International Film Festivals: A Cinema Struggling to Exist between New Resources and New ‘Dependencies.’” In New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Edited by Murat Akser and Deniz Bayrakdar, 205–225. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    Studies the role that international film festivals play on the creation, production, and distribution of Turkish cinema. Beginning with the Palme d’Or for Yilmaz Güney’s Yol (1982) up to 2014, this essay underlines Turkish cinema’s current dependence on festivals and the effect it has on film aesthetics and the industry.

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  • Erdoğan, Nezih. “The Making of Our America: Hollywood in a Turkish Context.” In Hollywood Abroad: Hollywood and Cultural Exchange. Edited by Melvyn Stokes and Richard Maltby, 121–132. London: BFI, 2005.

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    Addresses Turkish spectatorship and reception studies, in regards to American films distributed in Turkey during the 1940s. Examines the distribution industry and reception of Hollywood films, offering interesting analysis of how Turks identified, or not, with certain ideologies represented by American films and stars. Good for advanced students.

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  • Erkan, Hilal. “A New Look at Film Reception: Summer Theatres.” In New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Edited by Murat Akser and Deniz Bayrakdar, 190–204. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    A rare sociological study of open-air cinemas, prevalent from the 1950s through 1970s. The role of cultural public space, its impact on social communication, and a democratization of the cinematic experience (in rural areas) are examined. Socio-psychological collective experience is also approached. Useful for specializing undergraduates and graduate students.

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  • Yildirim, Tunç. Une periode emblematique du cinema Turc: Le cinema de Yesilçam (1948–1971). Istanbul: Les Editions Isis, 2014.

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    In French. A serious work on this period’s cinema industry, production, institutions, and spectatorship, addressed historically and politically in a pertinent analysis of the industry’s encounter with political institutions. Title translation: An Emblematic Period of Turkish Cinema: Yesilçam Cinema (1948–1971).

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Genres of Turkish Cinema

Categorizing “genre” in a non-essentializing way is always a challenge. For Turkish cinema, genre may best be defined by elements such as narrative style, author’s intent, content and meaning, as well as the emergence of transnationalism. Many of the genres treated here are far from exclusive and most overlap one another.

Historical Epic

Historical epics were important forms of Turkish cinema, especially during the Yesilçam period. When trying to define a national cinema, historical epics play an important role in how a particularly censored cinema arrives at shaping a national identity.

  • Gülçur, Ala Sivas. “Historical Epic as a Genre in Popular Turkish Cinema.” In Handbook of Research on the Impact of Culture and Society on the Entertainment Industry. Edited by R. Gülay Öztürk, 264–277. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2014.

    DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6190-5.ch015Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    An application of various definitions of the historical epic film genre as expressed in Turkish cinema, particularly during the Yesilçam period. Analysis includes the place this genre holds in Turkish cinematic culture, as well as how it portrays certain ideals of the nation.

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Political Cinema

One could certainly speculate that all cinema is political and this could certainly apply to Turkish cinema. Even with filmmakers who consider themselves apolitical, there is always a metaphoric language to be found representing either the political context of the film or a filmmaker’s underlining political reflection. Many of the sources listed under other headings are also excellent for interpreting Turkish cinema as political. However, one source is listed in this category for its approach to the aesthetics of social realism and its emphasis on the Kurdish filmmaker Yilmaz Güney, whose films not only echoed the social realism of the Italian neo-realists, but also were inherently political.

  • Daldal, Aslı. Art, Politics and Society: Social Realism in Italian and Turkish Cinema. Istanbul: Isis, 2003.

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    Studies the relationships between sociological and political contexts that favor social realism in Italian cinema (1945–1952) and Turkish cinema, from after the 1960 coup d’état to 1965. Based on aesthetic theories (Kantian, materialist, sociological, realist), the analysis examines two film movement cases. Useful for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students.

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Kurdish Cinema

Defined here as a “genre,” Kurdish cinema and its emblematic filmmaker Yilmaz Güney (b. 1937–d. 1984) play an important role not only in defining Turkish cinema but also in shaping Turkish national identity. A good introduction to this notion is found in Çiçek 2014. Other more theoretical analysis is found in Çiçek 2011, which concentrates on Kurdish cinema as a means to construct unrepresented Kurdish history, and Koçer 2014, which analyzes Kurdish films and its industry as a new means of transnational discourse on nation and identity. As a large minority group confronting a state that has been resistant to accept multiethnicity and multiculturalism, Kurdish ethnicity, culture, and language continue to resist a violent history. Güney and his successors have been courageous in their attempts to affirm their political and artistic identities in their filmmaking, while symbolizing a diverse society’s desire for pluralism, all of which is found in their films and in recent Kurdish film scholarship.

  • Çiçek, Özgür. “The Fictive Archive: Kurdish Filmmaking in Turkey.” Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media 1 (2011).

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    Philosophically based on Gilles Deleuze’s “time-image” theory and Hayden White’s theories on narrative and history, this analysis emphasizes how Kurdish fictional films that blur the lines between documentary and fiction have archival potential useful in constructing the unrepresented history of Kurdish life in Turkey. This source is suitable for upper-level and graduate students.

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  • Çiçek, Özgür. “The Old and New Ways of Kurdish Filmmaking in Turkey: Potentials and Risks.” In New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Edited by Murat Akser and Deniz Bayrakdar, 126–138. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    Approaches the notion of “national cinema” through various theoretical frameworks by analyzing how Kurdish cinema challenges and shapes the idea and nature of a Turkish national cinema. Alternative aesthetics due to censorship are also explored. Useful as introduction to Kurdish cinema and the problematic idea of a definable national cinema.

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  • Koçer, Suncem. “Kurdish Cinema as a Transnational Discourse Genre: Cinematic Visibility, Cultural Resilience, and Political Agency.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 46 (2014): 473–488.

    DOI: 10.1017/S0020743814000555Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    An analysis of defining Kurdish cinema and its production as a national cinema created in a transnational space. In underlining the role of newly created Kurdish film festivals, this empirical study also approaches the space that is produced for a discourse, at times politicized, in regards to nation and identity.

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Cinéma d’auteur

Cinéma d’auteur has been a prominent feature of the New Turkish Cinema (see also Post-Yesilçam and the New Turkish Cinema). Filmmakers such as Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Zeki Demirkubuz have been prominent recent auteurs, among others. Their cinema is considered personal and at times existential, as emphasized in the analysis of Nuri Bilge Ceylan in Atam 2014. It is often self-proclaimed as apolitical, despite the effect of sociopolitical traumas prompting a new aesthetic, as explored in Süalp 2014. These Turkish film auteurs, like many others (bringing to mind the filmmakers of the French and Iranian New Waves), are in the process of creating new filmic languages, metaphors, and genres that will provoke new meanings and expand the role cinema can play in society.

  • Atam, Zahit. “The Existential Boundaries of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cinema: ‘In the Beginning Was the Father: Why Papa?’” In New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Edited by Murat Akser and Deniz Bayrakdar, 67–91. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    A study of the new Turkish cinema’s emblematic filmmaker, this analysis examines the relationship between Ceylan’s personal history and the aesthetics of his work and how these aspects reflect the experience of his generation. It offers a succinct and somewhat psychoanalytic definition of cinéma d’auteur. Good for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students.

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  • Süalp, Tül Akbal. “Cinema in the Thresholds, without Gravity, under Urgent Times: Distant Voices, Still Lives.” In New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Edited by Murat Akser and Deniz Bayrakdar, 238–252. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    A philosophical view on how trauma (the 1980 coup d’état and other sociopolitical events) is creating a new chronotope in Turkish cinéma d’auteur and how contemporary directors are experimenting with new ways of storytelling that distance it from realism and classic narration. Most useful for advanced film and philosophy students.

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Cinema Diaspora

One of the largest diasporic Turkish communities is that within Germany. Due to the “guest-worker” negotiation between Turkey and Germany in 1961, large groups of Turkish workers, particularly from the Turkish rural areas, migrated to Germany to fill a workforce shortage. Despite the intention for this being short term, many workers stayed and reunited their families in Germany. Turks are now one of Germany’s largest minority populations. This present generation of German-born Turks (as some consider themselves) is well-represented in the cinema industry, creating a new genre being categorized within Turkish cinema. The filmmaker Fatih Akin is one of the most internationally well-known Turkish-German filmmakers. His films have been emblematic of the inner conflict, nostalgia, and identity search inherent in the personal stories of diasporic communities and have subsequently inspired much scholarly research. Burns 2006 examines how “guest-worker” cinema of the 1980s and 90s evolved into the later political cinema. Berghahn 2011 focuses on an analysis of Fatih Akin’s Head-On, as a succinct, pertinent introduction into defining new paradigms of cinema diaspora study. Identity being a central theme to cinema diaspora, Hake and Mennel 2012 analyzes diasporic aesthetics and narratives within a European context. In a surprisingly less frequent comparison, Tunç 2013 examines the two cinematic perspectives separately, German and Turkish, while analyzing the effects of generational differences on the evolution of Turkish-German cinema.

  • Berghahn, Daniela. “‘Seeing everything with different eyes’: The Diasporic Optic in the Films of Fatih Akin.’” In New Directions in German Cinema. Edited by Paul Cooke and Chris Homewood, 235–252. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.

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    In addition to this work, this author is an important scholar for the general study of diasporic cinema of Europe. For the Turkish diaspora in Germany, this chapter provides excellent and accessible theoretical tools for defining this cinema through the analysis of how Fatih Akin’s film Head-On is a particular example of new thematics and aesthetics of a burgeoning new German cinema.

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  • Burns, Rob. “Turkish-German Cinema: From Cultural Resistance to Transnational Cinema.” In German Cinema since Unification. Edited by David Clarke, 127–150. London and New York: Continuum, 2006.

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    Looking at Turkish-German cinema (1970s to 1990s), this unique analysis presents the evolution from so-called “guest-worker cinema” to the political cinema of the 1990s. It studies a transition from an inter- and intra-cultural resistance to a more multicultural perspective, citing films of Fatih Akin. Useful for undergraduate and graduate students.

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  • Hake, Sabine, and Barbara Mennel, eds. Turkish German Cinema in the New Millennium: Sites, Sounds, and Screens. New York: Berghahn, 2012.

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    Places Turkish-German cinema studies in the context of German and European culture through a transdisciplinary approach. Addresses Turkish-German films from the 1990s, while presenting aesthetics, genre, and discourses involving transnational and “hyphenated identities.” Useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of either film or cultural studies.

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  • Tunç, Ayca. “Habitats of Meaning: Turkish-German Cinema and Generational Differences.” In Imaginaries out of Place: Cinema, Transnationalism and Turkey. Edited by Gökçen Karanfil and Serkan Şavk, 27–55. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2013.

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    A study of Turkish-German films treating the Turkish diasporic community. Turkish and German filmmakers are examined in order to provide two cinematic perspectives of the community. Through this analysis, similarities and differences are noted in regards to the generational divisions of the filmmakers and their films. Helpful source for undergraduate and graduate students.

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Themes

If the meaning of cinema involves a “co-creation” between the filmmakers and their spectators, then it can be said that certain “themes” found in Turkish cinema create dialogues which are separate from an official national discourse. These dialogues correspond, at times, to a society’s need to understand events, particularly traumatic political and social events which have not been articulated in a satisfactory way. It is often a film and its interpretation that render the incomprehensible comprehensible and universal, whether or not it is linked to a filmmaker’s intention. Turkey’s sociopolitical history has been and is complex. This generation’s filmmakers carry the heritage of traumas experienced particularly during the 1960 and 1980 coup d’états, when under military rule, state violence and censorship were at a serious level. Contemporary Turkey and its society still experience problems with state violence, a rise in nationalism, fundamentalism, and an oppression of women and minorities’ rights. Despite the international recognition of Turkish cinema, freedom of expression for filmmakers is still at risk. This sociopolitical climate is depicted either literally or metaphorically in Turkish cinema. Recent Turkish cinema scholarship has articulated the various reoccurring themes that resonate within the current society. Themes such as memory hit at the heart of official Turkish state discourse, when a film approaches the subject of the Armenian genocide (1915). Women and gender issues are still at issue with a recent growing religious conservatism. Turkey’s geographic, spatial, and metaphoric cultural placement, as a bridge between the East and the West, still provokes questions on both cultural and national identity, which are also articulated in the films created in the Turkish diaspora. The current academic work on Turkish cinema and these reoccurring themes has demonstrated a rigorous approach to interpreting the role that Turkish cinema plays in its society and in the international arena. These particular scholars, mostly of Turkish origin, have helped defy growing academic censorship and have been essential in illuminating the transnational and universal relevance of the various themes and subject matter found in Turkish cinema.

Women

Most academic sources on gender and particularly on women have been published only recently, since the 2000s. D. Fatma Türe and Birsen Talay Keşoğlu, by stating the problem of the lack of archival preservation on women and gender studies, presents the work of scholars who are recent pioneers in correcting this neglect. Overlooked historical research on female spectatorship is presented in Boisseau and Basmaz 2011, which focuses on the women’s cinema experience from 1922 to 1950. A more recent period, 1963 to 2009, is examined in Asan 2014, in which cinematic musical adaptations are analyzed as a means to define a feminist social agenda. A similar period (1950s to 1960s) is treated in Bayrakdar 2011, which looks at the influence of cinema (among other educational and cultural elements) on constructing women’s identity during that time. Atakav 2013 continues a look at feminism by linking cinema and the 1980s feminist movement. On the other hand, a study on women and Islam is offered in Dönmez-Colin 2004, in which a transnational comparison of Turkey and Iran is presented. Moving onto more recent cinema, despite the narrative and aesthetic innovations characteristic of the new Turkish cinema, two works approach the curious phenomenon of the “silent” and “absent” women in current films. Güçlü 2010 offers a precise analysis of the different types of “silences” and their relation to defining gender roles. Suner 2010 takes a more general view of the “absence” as a self-criticism of the patriarchal sociopolitical structure. Both works give an alternative analysis of a shared trait that is nevertheless currently changing in the films of 2014 (Ceylan’s Winter Sleep) and 2015 (Ergüven’s Mustang).

  • Asan, Pinar. “Thinking Out Loud: On the Adaptations of Hurmuz with 7 Husbands.” In New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Edited by Murat Akser and Deniz Bayrakdar, 226–235. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    Looking at four cinematic adaptations of a musical (1963–2009), this essay presents a sociohistorical analysis of the depiction of women and women’s reception of the film in each time period in order to reveal the way women’s films were used as a “social agenda.”

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  • Atakav, Eylem. Women and Turkish Cinema: Gender Politics, Cultural Identity and Representation. Abingdon, UK, and New York: Routledge, 2013.

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    A study of the relationship between feminism and cinema in Turkey through examining the women’s movement in the sociopolitical context of the 1980s. Despite a somewhat narrow definition of what is “political,” it is a useful cinema source and historical overview of Turkish studies on the Turkish feminist movement of the 1980s.

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  • Bayrakdar, Deniz. “Turkish Cinema: An Institute for Identity Construction.” In Women’s Memory: The Problem of Sources. Edited by D. Fatma Türe and Birsen Talay Keşoğlu, 169–190. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2011.

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    Using research from Turkish “Girls’ Institutes” (finishing schools), the world of fashion (1950s–1960s), and 1960s cinema (which reached the largest socioeconomic demographic), this study analyzes their importance in the construction of women’s identity (or identities). Useful for all university student levels and researchers.

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  • Boisseau, Tracey Jean, and Ozgün Basmaz. “How Did Turkish Women Look? Excavating Women’s Cinematic Experience in Istanbul, 1922–1950.” In Women’s Memory: The Problem of Sources. Edited by D. Fatma Türe and Birsen Talay Keşoğlu, 191–204. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2011.

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    Not only an important study on spectatorship in Turkish cinema from the birth of the republic to WWII, but also a trailblazing source for those interested in research on the early cinematic experience of women. A pertinent starting point and guide for gender-related analysis of spectatorship and its sources.

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  • Dönmez-Colin, Gönül. Women, Islam and Cinema. London: Reaktion, 2004.

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    Examines how women are represented in narrative and image, as well as women as spectators and creators of cinema, in countries where Islam is dominant. The main focus is on Turkey and Iran. Transnational comparisons are included to find some unity within Muslim-oriented cinema. Appropriate for undergraduates and graduate students.

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  • Güçlü, Özlem. “Silent Representations of Women in the New Cinema of Turkey.” Sine/Cine: Journal of Film Studies 1.2 (Autumn 2010): 71–85.

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    The “silent woman” is an emerging theme in new Turkish cinema (see also Suner 2010). This article explores what function the silent (literally and symbolically) female character plays in contemporary film by analyzing different types of “silences” in order to reveal discourses on gender roles and power relations.

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  • Suner, Asuman. “The Absent Women of New Turkish Cinema.” In New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity, and Memory. By Asuman Suner, 163–178. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2010.

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    Offers several interpretations of new Turkish cinema (see Post-Yesilçam and the New Turkish Cinema); however, the chapter on women is especially worth pointing out. The absence of women as subject is interestingly analyzed not only as a negative element, but also as a constructive self-criticism of the continued patriarchal structure.

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Minorities/Migration/Diaspora

These three themes deserve separate and distinct analysis, but they are grouped together as most of the sources are collective essays on all three subject matters. Transnationalism and the diaspora, especially the German diaspora, are the principal topics in these works. Most studies focus on new paradigms that go beyond the limitation of national and cultural borders in order to create a more unified identity associated with the terms transnationalism, multiculturalism, and the diaspora in the “new” European cinema. Göktürk 2003 breaks down the stereotypes of exile, diaspora, and the “other.” And in Göktürk 2010, a specific analysis of this deconstruction is demonstrated through the use of sound and music in Fatih Akin’s films. Further analysis and definitions of nationalism, transnationalism, and multiculturalism are found in Karanfil and Şavk 2013, which uses a post-structuralist perspective. Works that go beyond the German-Turkish diaspora include Halle 2014, which analyzes Turkish-German films, but also other “hyphenated” European cinema in order to define a more borderless “Europeanization” of cinema. Smets 2014 concentrates on the less studied Turkish diaspora in Belgium by studying their reception of Turkish national films.

  • Göktürk, Deniz. “Turkish Delight-German Fright: Unsettling Oppositions.” In Mapping the Margins: Identity, Politics and the Media. Edited by Karen Ross and Deniz Derman, 177–193. Creskill, NJ: Hampton, 2003.

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    By analyzing post-unification Turkish-German films, this original essay dismantles romanticized and artificial notions of exile and diaspora in order to arrive at a discourse of a positive “hybridity” of multiculturalism and transnationalism, beyond national and constructed cultural boundaries. Useful for advanced undergraduates and researchers studying diasporic communities and cinema.

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  • Göktürk, Deniz. “Sound Bridges: Transnational Mobility as Ironic Melodrama.” In European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe. Edited by Daniela Berghahn and Claudia Sternberg, 215–233. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

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    Analyzes two films of Fatih Akin as a new genre of migrant/diaspora films. An analysis of the films and their music concludes that Akin’s cinema goes beyond dichotomies by unifying diversity into a more contemporary (and positive) position. Useful for undergraduate and graduate students. One of the few sources concentrating on music.

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  • Halle, Randall. The Europeanization of Cinema: Interzones and Imaginative Communities. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014.

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    This book does not focus specifically on Turkish-German films. However, it uses these films, among others, as a pertinent example of a new paradigm through which to approach cultural transnationalism. Theoretical with new definitions of European “interzones,” this is a useful source for more advanced students concentrating on transnational and European cultural studies.

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  • Karanfil, Gökçen, and Serkan Şavk, eds. Imaginaries out of Place: Cinema, Transnationalism and Turkey. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2013.

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    Reflecting multifaceted new perspectives of transnational, diasporic, and migrant cinema, these essays represent a pertinent diversity of themes, including: defining nationalism and transnationalism; hyphenated cinema; space and identity; metaphors of “homeland”; film reception; and women’s image. Theoretically oriented towards post-structuralism. Useful for upper-level undergraduate and graduate studies.

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  • Smets, Kevin. “‘Turkish Rambo’ Going Transnational: The Polarized Reception of Mainstream Political Cinema among the Turkish Diaspora in Belgium.” Turkish Studies 15.1 (2014): 12–28.

    DOI: 10.1080/14683849.2014.897409Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A well-researched, unique work that studies national identity and political film through its reception in Turkish diasporic areas. With most Turkish diaspora media studies focusing on Germany, this analysis, as well as others by this author, examines the Turkish diaspora in Belgium, a less studied region.

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Identity (Cultural, Ethnic, and National)

Of all the themes emerging in new Turkish cinema scholarship, “identity” is one of the principal and problematic topics. This is quite evident considering Turkey’s well-known position as a bridge between the East and the West, which becomes an almost topographical representation of its tensions between modernism and traditionalism, rural and urban cultures, and minority groups and nationalists—all of which become related to defining identities culturally, ethnically, and nationally. In examining the construction of cultural, ethnic, and gender identities, most studies (in particular, Atakav 2014) culminate in a methodology of forming new national identities and discourse. Robins and Aksoy 2000 is an excellent starting point for how Turkish nationalism and resistance against it has shaped Turkish cinema. Dönmez-Colin 2008 furthers this sense of resistance by an analysis of Turkish cinema’s reflection of the nation’s diversity. For a look at the effects of the sociopolitical trauma of the 1980s on Turkish and diasporic filmmakers in the early 21st century, both Atakav 2014 and Suner 2010 offer perspectives on the reconstruction of the notion of nation (Atakav 2014) and more precise, metaphoric analysis of identity (Suner 2010).

  • Atakav, Eylem. “‘Do One’s Dreams Become Smaller as One Becomes Bigger?’: Memory, Trauma and the Child in Turkish Cinema.” In New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Edited by Murat Akser and Deniz Bayrakdar, 158–175. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    Through inventive film analysis, the author shows how metaphoric, personal, and depoliticized images and narration of memories from the 1980 coup d’état and other traumatic sociopolitical events help to construct (or reconstruct) the nation. Best for more advanced undergraduate students.

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  • Dönmez-Colin, Gönül. Turkish Cinema: Identity, Distance and Belonging. London: Reaktion, 2008.

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    Emphasizes how recent films reflect Turkey’s ethnic, cultural, and social diversity, while searching for reconciling these identities. The analysis is presented thematically: migrant and exile’s influence on society and film, minority identity, gender and sexuality. Film industries and film reception are addressed. Good for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

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  • Robins, Kevin, and Asu Aksoy. “Deep Nation: The National Question and Turkish Cinema Culture.” In Cinema and Nation. Edited by Matte Hjort and Scott MacKenzie, 203–221. London and New York: Routledge, 2000.

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    History of censorship arising out of Turkish nationalists’ desire to use cinema as a means to project a unified vision of nation, excluding the reality of the country’s diversity, thereby inspiring filmmakers to deconstruct this ideal and create a cinema reflective of the reality of Turkey’s multiculturalism and multiethnicity.

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  • Suner, Asuman. New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity, and Memory. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2010.

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    In depth thematic analysis of Turkey’s sociopolitical history and its effect on filmmakers and their films in contemporary cinema (1990s–2006). This relationship is defined as both “nostalgic” and “political” (in terms of “belonging” and “identity”). Included is an innovative analysis of the absence of women as subjects (see Women).

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Religion

Despite the continuing importance and relevance of this topic, there has not been a large amount of study on religion and cinema in Turkish films. What have evolved recently are beginning studies of Islam and cinema, in which a new genre has been introduced, “Islamic cinema” (Dönmez-Colin 2004). Most studies center on the representation of Islamic life in cinema, with Mutlu and Koçer 2012 presenting an approach that deals with how censorship of religion in film by the previous secular governments reveals nationalist ideals.

  • Avci, Özlem, and Berna Uçarol Kilinç. “Islamic Ways of Life Reflected on the Silver Screen.” In Cinema and Politics: Turkish Cinema and New Europe. Edited by Deniz Bayrakdar, 240–257. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2009.

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    By analyzing how the discourse of the Islamic way of life changed in the 1990s (at times becoming more political), this essay presents how this change is reflected in cinema. Includes a helpful appendix of films depicting this transformation. Useful for advanced students researching Islamic life in film.

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  • Dönmez-Colin, Gönül. Women, Islam and Cinema. London: Reaktion, 2004.

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    Although this source concentrates on women and cinema in countries where Islam is dominant, this source offers pertinent studies on Muslim-oriented cinemas of Turkey and Iran, including parallels drawn with other non-Arab Muslim states. Appropriate for undergraduates and graduate students searching a good overview on the genre of “Islamic cinema.”

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  • Mutlu, Dilek Kaya, and Z. Koçer. “A Different Story of Secularism: The Censorship of Religious Elements in Turkish Films of the 1960s and Early 1970s.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 15.1 (2012): 71–89.

    DOI: 10.1177/1367549411424948Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A detailed study on the representation of religion in Turkish cinema and its censorship by the Turkish government. It looks at censorship as a means of examining the state’s attachment to Kemalist nationalist ideals of secularism and its paradoxical relationship to Sunni Islam.

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Urbanism/Space

In the metaphor of the city of Istanbul as the bridge uniting Europe and Asia, symbolic dichotomies become apparent in the spatial and geographic use of cities and urban space in Turkish cinema. Urban areas, and Istanbul in particular, are juxtaposed with the use of rural regions, often representing modernism versus traditionalism and other cultural tensions. Göktürk 2000 presents a novel essay on Turkish women and German urban space, which extends this analysis to diasporic city spaces.

  • Alkan, Hülya. “Spatial Realism: From Urban to Rural.” In New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema. Edited by Murat Akser and Deniz Bayrakdar, 267–279. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2014.

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    Presents the cinematic use of urban space, particularly Istanbul, and rural areas as actors integral to the narrative, aesthetics, and meanings in new Turkish cinema. With this perspective, urban and rural areas play integral roles in driving the narrative forward. Useful for upper undergraduates to graduate students.

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  • Basgüney, Hakki, and Özge Özdüzen, eds. The City in Turkish Cinema. Istanbul: Libra Kitapcılık ve Yayıncılık, 2014.

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    Good references for the canon of Turkish cinema, not entirely centered on the city in Turkish cinema; however, interesting emphasis is placed on the aesthetic importance of the city in connection with the aesthetics of social realism.

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  • Göktürk, Deniz. “Turkish Women on German Streets: Closure and Exposure in Transnational Cinema.” In Spaces in European Cinema. Edited by Myrto Konstantarakos, 64–76. Portland, OR: Intellect, 2000.

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    Presents the changing image, narrative, and aesthetics depicting Turkish-German women, in addition to the use and meaning of the German urban space. The author uses aesthetic analysis within a sociological and cultural context. Useful for undergraduate and graduate film students.

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  • Kytö, Meri. “The Soundscapes of Istanbul in Turkish Film Soundtracks.” In The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics. Edited by John Richardson, Claudia Gorbman, and Carol Vernallis. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

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    Examines the use of diegetic sounds of Istanbul in two films: Distant (Ceylan) and Ten to Eleven (Esmer). Includes an historical overview of audio use from the 1930s to 1990s, followed by a sociopolitical interpretation of sound as a means of constructing the imagination and identity of spectators.

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Youth

The theme of youth will hopefully undergo further development in Turkish cinema research. A new more politicized youth has emerged following recent events and protests in Turkey (i.e., Gezi Park in 2013) and is beginning to express itself in cinema (Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang, for example). Arslan 2007 presents one of the most interesting analysis of youth portrayal in the discourse of Islamic cinema. However, with portraits of a new youth emerging presently in Turkish cinema, it is certain that current scholars of the cinema of Turkey will continue to articulate the present and future cinematic representations of Turkey’s youth.

  • Arslan, Savas. “Projecting a Bridge for Youth: Islamic ‘Enlightenment’ versus Westernization in Turkish Cinema.” In Youth Culture in Global Cinema. Edited by Timothy Shary and Alexandra Seibel, 157–172. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007.

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    Emphasizes the dichotomy inherent in Turkish culture: the East-West “bridge” versus the “clash” between urban modernity, secularism, and rural culture. Analyzes four films (1970s to 1990s) which deal with Turkish youth (particularly “Islamic films”) and which share a critique of the Westernization of the nation in terms of modernization and laicism.

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