I LOST IT AT A TURKISH MOVIE
LECTURE (David Cuthell) WED 4:15-6:05 ICC 205B
SCREENING (Erju Ackman) TUE 6:15-8:15PM ICC 118
Week 1. Introduction. Modern Turkey before the collapse of the Soviet Union
Week 2. Nationalism, Poverty and Oppression in the 1970’s:
Film: Yol (click for synopsis) Yilmaz Guney Bio
An Interview with Omer Kavur: Constructing a Cinema of the City
Omer Kavur; Miriam Rosen Middle East Report, No. 160, Turkey in the Age of Glasnost. (Sep. - Oct., 1989), pp. 19-21.
Week 3. Honorable Bandits and the Big City:
Film: Eşkiya (click for synopsis) Yavuz Turgul Bio
Old Culture-New Culture: A Study of Migrants in Ankara, Turkey
Ned Levine Social Forces, Vol. 51, No. 3. (Mar., 1973), pp. 355-368.
Week 4. Constructed Ties and the Quality of Mercy:
Film: Tabutta Röveşata
Interview with Dervis Zaim on Somersault in a Coff...
Tabutta Rovasata
Somersault in a Coffin 1996
Review:Somersault in a Coffin (1997)
Derviş Zaim Bio (1964- )
Week 5. Imagined Communities and Boundaries:
Film: Bulutlari Beklerken
Yesim USTAOGLU Bio ( 1960- )
Interview with Yesim Ustaoglu on Waiting for the C...
Waiting for The Clouds (6:32 min. clip)
Waiting for The Clouds Film Poster
Week 6. Village Life: Family Ties:
Film: Beş Vakıt
Poster and a review
More Reviews
Week 7 Turks as Euro-Citizens?: The Lives of Women
Film: Oyun
Week 8 Art and Social Aspirations:
Film: Karpuz Kabuğundan Gemiler Yapmak
Week 9. Social Equity, Justice and Change:
Film: Uzak
Film Notes 8
Official website Information
Week 10 Democracy, Law and Central Authority: Koker; Local Politics and Democracy in Turkey. Keyder; Chs.1-5
Film: Babam ve Oğlum Soundtrack Award Turkish Cinema Newsletter Link
Week 11. On the Road Turkey Today; Fathers and Sons:Film: Hokkabaz
Week 12 Globalization and the Media:
Film: Head-On
Fatih Akin Interview Fatih Akin Bio German Cinema and immigration
Young Turks of German Cinema (Download Power Point presentation)
as presented at Goethe Institute in Washington DC
Week 13. Between Two Worlds: Istanbul at the Crossroads:
Film: Crossing the Bridge
Crossing the Bridge
Week 14 Summary. Final Papers due.
Contemporary Turkey Politics and Culture through the Constructed Lens of Cinema
Fall 2007
Turkey today is a nation of seventy three million people occupying a space on the globe that is squarely in the middle of East and West. The Turkish economy has been one of the world’s top performers during the past five years. Literacy among the young is universal and contemporary Turks are connected to their peers and the outside world through cell phones, the internet as well as the traditional media. The result has been an explosion of creative energy in art, music and especially in film. Turkish film is in the vanguard of the many societal debates of the present, the role of Islam, women’s rights, economic and social justice and the question of weather or not Turkey is of the East or the West to name a few.
This course will examine a series of Turkish films in an effort to explore the many issues and debates in Turkish society. It will aim to strip away the constructed artifice of the directors and examine the social and political debates that underlie these works. To do so the course will also involve a series of readings that will examine film and film criticism as well as those that will supply a contemporary and historical background of Turkey.