New Turkish Cinema
I.B. Tauris book cover
AuthorAsuman Suner
CountryUnited Kingdom
United States
LanguageEnglish
GenreTurkish Cinema
PublisherI.B. Tauris
Publication date
January 30, 2010 (2010-01-30)
Media typeHardback
Paperback
Pages224
ISBN978-1-84511-949-2

New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity and Memory is a 2010 I.B. Tauris publication by Istanbul Technical University Associate Professor Asuman Suner which examines the emergence of the new wave Turkish cinema, including both commercial and independent productions, against the backdrop of the drastic transformation undergone by Turkey since the mid-1990s and how these films persistently return to the themes of belonging, identity and memory. The book, which was published on January 30, 2010, is an extensively revised and re-written update of an earlier edition published by Metis Press, Istanbul, in 2006.[1]

Content

Introduction

The author briefly outlines the history of Turkish cinema in order to place the emergence of new Turkish cinema in into historical and cultural context.

New popular Turkish films focusing on the provincial small-town life of the past, which voice a critique of modern Turkish society through an idealized representation of the past as a time of collective childhood, are discussed by the author, who finds this critique problematic, however, as it renders society unaccountable for the events of the past and alleviates it from the burden of responsibility.

Filmography

Chapter 2: New Political Films

The new wave of Turkish political films, which show the effect on normal people of the country's traumatic recent past (including police brutality, disappearances, repression of religious and ethnic minorities and the Kurdish–Turkish conflict), are discussed by the author, who argues these films interrogate questions of national identity and belonging in common with transnational cinema.

Filmography

Chapter 3: The Cinema of Nuri Bilge Ceylan

The films of the Cannes Grand Jury Prize-winning auteur-filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, arguably the most internationally acclaimed director of new Turkish cinema, are discussed by the author, who claims that they are mainly about acknowledging the paradoxes of home and belonging.

Filmography

Chapter 4: The Cinema of Zeki Demirkubuz

The films of prominent auteur-filmmaker Zeki Demirkubuz, which centre on characters who are agitated or detached, draw upon highly-dramatic and violent events, and use compulsive repetition in the narrative, are discussed by the author, who claims they direct attention to the dark underside of domesticity and the home.

Filmography

  • Block C (Turkish: C Blok, 1994), directed by Zeki Demirkubuz
  • Innocence (Turkish: Masumiyet, 1997), directed by Zeki Demirkubuz
  • The Third Page (Turkish: Üçüncü Sayfa, 1999), directed by Zeki Demirkubuz
  • Fate (Turkish: Yazgı, 2001), directed by Zeki Demirkubuz
  • Confession (Turkish: İtiraf, 2002), directed by Zeki Demirkubuz
  • The Waiting Room (Turkish: Bekleme Odası, 2003), directed by Zeki Demirkubuz
  • Destiny (Turkish: Kader, 2005), directed by Zeki Demirkubuz

Chapter 5: New Istanbul Films

The new transitional genre of Istanbul Films, which offer alternative ways of seeing the city to its former privileged position in Turkish cinema, is discussed by the author, who claims that these films recycle and reuse traditional clichés about the city rather than negating them.

Filmography

Chapter 6: The Absent Women of New Turkish Cinema

The absence of women, a major defining characteristic of new Turkish cinema, is discussed by the author, who suggests this is shaped by an ambivalence of the filmmakers who subordinate women to men and deny them agency but have a critical self-awareness of their complicity with patriarchal society.

Filmography

Afterword

The author provides a general assessment of new Turkish cinema on the basis of the arguments in the preceding chapters.

References

  1. ↑ Güler, Emrah (2010-11-05). "Books examine post-1980s Turkish cinema". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
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