Ken Loach sineması denince akla ilk gelen, işçi sınıfı ve bu sınıfın acımasız kapitalist sistem içindeki mücadelesi olsa gerek. Sosyalist gerçekçilik üzerine kurulu sinema anlayışıyla Loach, filmlerinde işçi sınıfının/alt sınıfların problemlerine büyüteç tutarak toplumu bilinçlendirmeyi hedefler.

Sweeping the prestigious awards

“Vavien” has received many prestigious awards in Turkey. For example, it managed to get two Golden Tulip Awards for the Best Film and the Best Screenplay from the National Jury of the 29th İstanbul Festival Film Festival on April 17, 2010. The film also received a third award at the same festival, which was the International Federation of Film Critics Prize, known as the FIPRESCI Prize.

Among the other awards the film has received, are three Yeşilçam Awards 2010 for the Best Music (Atilla Özdemiroğlu), the Best Actress (Binnur Kaya) and the Best Screenplay (Engin Günaydın). The film also received the Sadri Alışık Award for the Best Actress (Binnur Kaya).

In addition, the film got 5 of the Turkish Film Critics Association Awards 2009 (known as SİYAD Awards in Turkey): the Best Music (Atilla Özdemiroğlu), the Best Art Direction (Elif Taşçıoğlu), the Best Actress (Binnur Kaya), the Best Supporting Actor (Settar Tanrıöğen) and the Best Screenplay (Engin Günaydın).

What “Vavien” is about and why it is so good

“Vavien” is a black comedy telling us the story of a family living in a small town in the Black Sea region of Turkey. Celal is the local electrician who wants to get rid of his wife Sevilay, a dutiful Turkish wife. They have a teenage son.

This may all sound ordinary and familiar. However, as soon as the story unfolds, the beautifully written screenplay starts revealing in a witty manner that each member of the family has something to hide from one another. Through symmetrical depictions, family secrets are revealed. In one scene we see Celal hiding his adult video collection and in the next scene we see the teenage son uncovering it, watching it, and then putting the CDs back in their hiding place. Meanwhile the father hears all of this as he is down in the cellar taking his wife’s secret money which her father has been sending from Germany for the last 15 years in case she is dumped by her husband one day.

One of the things that makes “Vavien” an extraordinary film is the way it unearths the hidden. Metaphorically the film takes photographs of a Turkish town and its people. The audience is, in return, expected to think about very important matters such as the unfulfilled lives, patriarchal struggles, emasculation, lack of communication between married couples, women’s victimization. Shortly, “Vavien” tells “a dirty story”, as the Taylan Brothers said in an interview for the prestigious Turkish movie magazine “Altyazı”. However, it does so exhibiting all the characteristics of a good black comedy, so maybe that’s why we don’t feel that “dirty” watching the film.

In addition to its well-crafted screenplay, the beauty of the film also lies in the performances of both the leading and the supporting actors. Engin Günaydın and Binnur Kaya both played in “Avrupa Yakası” for years, one of the most popular Turkish sitcom on Turkish TV, but in “Vavien” they manage to detach themselves from their sitcom personas. In the film, Binnur Kaya’s acting is definitely first-class. In all the scenes she appears in, she grows “bigger” as an actress… especially, in the scene where she finds out that her money has been stolen. Here, the Taylan Brothers’ close-up on the actress’s eyes is very telling: she needs no words.

What is also good about the film is its dream-like quality in the second part. Sevilay’s “comeback” feels both real and unreal. Her comeback may only exist in Celal’s mind.

Just a suggestion

I would like my readers to watch the last scene of the film where we see Celal and his family in the car carefully. Please pause the film there for a while and look at the shot as if it is a family photo. What does this photo tell you? What is hidden behind the happiness in the photo?

And final remarks

More things can be written about the film, but we believe the way the National Jury of the 29th İstanbul Film Festival described it while presenting the FIPRESCI Prize prevents any further coment: “… an [extremely] enjoyable and unpredictable, well-acted dark comedy from the heartland of Anatolia that links elements of popular comedy with a witty and intelligent screenplay.”

What is “black comedy”?

In “Film: An Introduction”, William H. Phillips defines black comedy as “a style used in some narratives since WW II that shows the humorous possibilities in subjects previously considered off-limits to comedy, such as warfare, murder, death, and dying” (p.563).Phillips also writes that black comedies are often satiric.

An Interview with Engin Günaydın

The Mystery of “Vavien”

Engin Günaydın, Vavien’s Celal, is the creator of this beautiful screenplay. Günaydın, who became very popular with his earlier TV persona Burhan Altıntop in the famous sitcom “Avrupa Yakası”, rises not only as a successful actor but also as a talented screenwriter. Günaydın has kindly accepted my request for an interview for the blog readers:

Ali Nihat Eken: What inspired you to write “Vavien”?

Engin Günaydın: Like the characters in the film’s picnic sequence, we used to go for picnics as a family. The nature was so beautiful. But with the arrival of the sunset, the sense of beauty would soon be overcome by fear. On the way back home we had to go past very dangerous cliffs and could not help talking about them; who could find us if we fell off the cliff?… “Nobody could find you if I pushed you out there”, my brother would make jokes to his wife… “Vavien” is in fact a film of this joke.

Ali Nihat Eken: How did you come up with the “Vavien” metaphor?

Engin Günaydın: “Vavien” means a two-way light switch system, and wiring up the circuit is not that easy. I am still no good at it although we [Günaydın’s brother has an electrician's shop in Erbaa, where "Vavien" takes place] had done it many times. One day I was examining a diagram showing the two-way switching arrangement. All of a sudden, it seeemed to me what the diagram reflected was “life” itself. My mind could be switched on from one end, and switched off from another end, just like a two-way light switch. Light and darkness. All I experienced in life would fall into a dark sphere. I reflected on how I could apply this concept to the whole film, and I realized later it was not difficult at all; light would soon turn into darkness or the darkness would all of a sudden turn into light.

Eken: How do you know small townspeople so well? The film depicted them so well.

Günaydın: I spent my childhood among handicraftsmen. My family were among them too. In my hometown, everyone knew each other well. People would talk about anything with no constraints. Life in a small town is simple and ordinary; in “Vavien”, I tried to search for an answer to the question of what would happen if serious, big issues were tackled through the depictions of ordinary small townspeople?

Eken: In what way(s) do you think “Vavien” has contributed to Turkish cinema?

Engin Günaydın: “Vavien” has become a film which reminds us once again that our local characters are able to demonstrate universality… Instead of creating a copy-cat cinema in terms of story and plot, we wanted to show how important our own stories are indeed. All this, we believed, would help Turkish cinema go back to its roots and help strengthen its place.

Eken: Even the “Vavien” metaphor on its own is able to tell us about ourselves. And the happy family picture at the end… How are we going to deal with what is beneath our “societal skin”?

Günaydın: Well, we will stop lying first. Chasing after the truth is the best thing we can do for humanity. Cinema should be honest. The reason why people love cinema is that they see cinema as their confidant. Cinema should keep being their confidant; it should keep telling them the truth and sharing their loneliness.

Eken: Your screenplay demonstrates a perspective supportive of women. Drawing on your personal history, can you elaborate on this?

Günaydın: I love my mum; she is my creator. That’s why she has a sacred part. If I were to kneel down in front of a person, I’d rather that be my mother. I consider women as the creators of the humankind. If they feel sad, humanity would also feel sad, I believe.

Note 1: The “Vavien” DVD has English subtitles.
Note 2: “Vavien” means a two-way light switch.

İlksen Başarır’s award-winning debut film “Love in another language” (Başka Dilde Aşk) invites us to the world of the deaf through its plain but exciting depiction of the romance between Onur, a young deaf and mute man who works as a librarian and Zeynep, a call-center employee. The film shows the difficulties the couple encounter in their relationship with one another and the difficulties they face with the world outside them.

“Love in another language” is a love story. However, it offers more than that. The communication difficulties Onur and Zeynep have is just a microcosm of a malady we suffer from in modern Turkey, at a more universal level, in contemporary world: lack of communication.

“Can we communicate without speaking?” is the thesis of the film declared in its early moments. We all speak with one another in our daily lives. But does this necessarily mean that we communicate? While answering this and demonstrating the difficulties we encounter, İlksen Basarir’s film manages to gain its universal appeal.

The film’s use of locations supports its thesis and themes. The call center where Zeynep works and the library Onur works at are equally important. The former is quite noisy and stressful. The emphasis on Zeynep and her friends’ talk to the customers on the phone is nothing but a metaphorical demonstration of not only how we speak with each other but also how we should do so. In contrast to the call center, the library is quiet; “far from the madding crowd”. However, there are cases which clearly indicate that people still miscommunicate within this setting as well.

Since the film mainly focuses on the themes of communication and miscommunication, there are many images of such communication: mobile phones, computers, headphones, microphones, pen and paper, television, videos, blackboards… there is so much available for us so that we can communicate. But do we? Can we?

İlksen Başarır, the director of the film, wrote the screenplay with Mert Fırat, the leading actor of “Love in another language”. The film is never a cliché and flows successfully. And there is consensus that the performance of its leading cast is remarkable: Mert Fırat has won two awards in Turkey; Ankara International Film Festival’s the best leading actor award and Yeşilçam Awards 2010, both in March 2010. Like Mert Fırat, Saadet Işıl Aksoy has won two awards: Ankara International Film Festival 2010 The Best Leading Actress Award and The 4th International Bursa Silk Road Film Festival National Golden Karagöz Feature Film Competition The Best Leading Actress Award. In the same festival, the director İlksen Basarir also received the National Golden Karagöz Feature Film Competition FIPRESCI Award. In addition, Hayk Kirakosyan received the best cinematography award in Ankara International Film Festival 2010.

“Love in another language” is a good example of modern Turkish cinema. Its strength comes from its honesty. It is a good study of how we easily “other” those who are different from us. The film’s DVD has English and Turkish subtitles and a narrative track for the blind and visually impaired.

An Interview with İlksen Başarır, the director of “Love in another language”

The First of Its Kind

Ali Nihat Eken: For our readers who would like to discover Turkish cinema, can you please first tell us about yourself as a film director?

İlksen Başarır: I studied journalism at university. However, while working as an intern, I decided that I would not work as a journalist. I had a friend working at a production company who said they needed someone at work. I had an interview and started working there. A weekend later I went to a film set and realized that film making was what I wished to get involved in. For ten years, I worked as an assistant director for commercials and feature films.

Eken: You are the director of “Love in another language”. Also you co-wrote the script with Mert Fırat. Can you tell us what encouraged you to work on this story?

Başarır: Mert told me a story he wanted to write about and this story eventually became the backbone of the film. I really liked it. I believed it would make a good film and in a few days we made up our mind to write the script together. Writing it up took us 16 months. First we worked on Onur and Zeynep’s story and then came up with the supporting characters and the sub-stories.

Eken: Did you change the script while shooting the film?

Başarır: The final script was the shooting script. During the rehearsals with the actors, we made some slight changes in the dialogues but we did not change it afterwards, while shooting the film.

Eken: While writing the script, did you have the leading cast in mind? How did you decide on the cast of the film?

Başarır: While we were writing the script, it was not definite that I would shoot the film and Mert would be in the cast.  However, after having done all the work on the script and the research for the film, I wanted Mert to act Onur in the story.  And it was Mert who persuaded me to be the director of the film. Soon we ended up selecting the cast for the film which included everyone I wanted to work with.

Eken: We all know that making a film is a meticulous job in Turkey. What challenges did you face? How did you overcome them?

Başarır: No doubt the major problem was the budget. We made this film on our own. We had no fellow producers who would contribute to such an investment. We received some support from the Ministry of Culture. And I am happy to say that over the years we made very good friends in this sector. They all believed in this film and did their best to  help make it come true. We had many budget-related problems.  We shot the film in 19 days.

Eken: In your depiction of the individuals repressed by the economic system, were there any directors who inspired you? For example,  Ken Loach?

Başarır: I can’t say there is, especially not in this respect… but of course, Ken Loach is a director whose work I follow.

Eken: What do you think “Love in another language” has achieved for the Turkish cinema?

Başarır: In Turkey, “Love in another language” is the first Turkish film subtitled in Turkish and I, therefore, believe that this film has accomplished an important mission in its contribution to the social integration of the impaired. We have at least taken the initial step towards this cause… In terms of genre, “Love in another language” has become the first of its kind. It is neither a commercial film nor an art-house movie.  And this is, I think, where we have been successful.  Although shown in a few cinemas, the film’s box office performance was good with it being shown in all film festivals and receiving awards.

Eken: When you look at Turkey through the relationship between Zeynep and Onur, what do you see? Are you optimistic?

Başarır: I can’t say I am. By making this film, I have entered the world of the deaf and the mute and learned a lot about them. Turkey is really backwards; we have no tolerance; dislike the ones who are different from us. Our film has a statement: “We are against any kind of othering.” And we want this to be adopted everywhere.”

Eken: How do you promote “Love in another language” outside Turkey? What reactions have you received? How can film enthusiasts access your film abroad?

Başarır: We haven’t done much promotional work abroad. We introduced the film in the Berlin Film Market where it was positively received… many  were interested in the film. However, there are no specific agreements yet. We might release the DVD abroad.

Eken: Thanks so much, İlksen Başarır.

1. Before you read Rushdie’s essay, comment on the title of the essay. How do you think it would help you understand the author’s perspective?
2. Comment on Rushdie’s tone in the first two paragraphs. How does the author set the tone of the essay?
3. Why do you think Rushdie says that the success of reality TV shows “tell us things about ourselves”?
4. In paragraph 4, why do you think Rushdie chooses to use the word “half” so often?
5. Identify the author’s choice of words or phrases that express contrast in the essay and comment on why he uses such contrasting expressions. Do you find the author’s style effective? Explain.
6. What is the significance of Rushdie’s expression of “engineered realism”?
7. How does the “Colosseum” metaphor help you understand Rushdie’s perspective?
8. Why do you think Salman Rushdie refers to Gore Vidal in his essay?
9. Comment on the following quotation from Rushdie’s essay: “We are the Winstons now.”

© Ali Nihat Eken, Istanbul, June 2010.

Suggested film: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Suggested film: The Truman Show
Suggested novel: Nineteen Eighty-Four

1. Before you read Pollitt’s essay, comment on “why boys would not play with dolls”.
2. After you read Pollitt’s essay and identify her perspective about why boys don’t play with dolls, discuss to what extent and in what ways your argument matches Katha Politt’s argument.
3. Identify where Pollitt locates her thesis in her essay and comment on why she has chosen to do so.
4. Explain Katha Pollitt’s opinion of “theories of innate differences” in boys’ and girls’ behavior.  Do you agree with her? Why? Why not?
5. What does Pollitt mean when she writes “[feminism] has hardly turned America into a playground free of sex roles?
6. Identify Katha Pollitt’s opinion of current feminists and explain the reasons for her opinion.
7. According to Pollitt, “With sex roles, as in every area of life, people aspire to what is possible, and conform to what is necessary”. Discuss the reason(s) for such conformity.
8. Why does Pollitt say that “feminism fits our children’s future”? Do you agree with her? Why? Why not?
9. Suggested Essay Topic: Do you think “Barbie” is a figure of subordination or a figure of empowerment? Discuss. (Suggested reading: Sandra Cisneros’s Barbie-Q: A Subversive or Hegemonic Popular Text? by Leticia I. Romo, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, 2005, Vol. 24, p127-137)Suggested Short Story: “Barbie-Q” by Sandra Cisneros

© Ali Nihat Eken, Istanbul, June 2010

How does Wolf’s comparison between older and younger women in the 3rd paragraph help you understand her argument?

What does Wolf mean by the expression “secret underlife”?

Why does Wolf call the beauty myth a political weapon? Identify examples of how this weapon works on different levels in the lives of Western women.

Discuss what the following quotation reveals about men and women and the relationship between them. “Women must want to embody it [beauty] and men must want to possess women who embody it”.

Identify and comment on the examples through which the writer refutes the idea that beauty is timeless, changeless, biological, sexual and evolutionary.

Why does the writer say that “the beauty myth is not about women at all”?

What is the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the concept of physical ideal?

What does Wolf mean by “social fictions”? Find examples of social fictions in Wolf’s argument and comment on what these may lead to.

What is the significance of the “Iron Maiden” as a metaphor in Wolf’s argument?

What is Wolf’s expectation of women as far as “The Beauty Myth” is concerned? Do you think it is realistic/attainable? Why? Why not?

© Ali Nihat Eken, Istanbul, May 2010

1. Watch the opening shots of the film carefully. How do they prepare the audience for the film?
2. What is the significance of the empty chair in the film?
3. Examine the waiting-room sequence in the film carefully and comment on how the camera movements and angles, the editing techniques, the colors, and the sound help us understand Juno’s story.
4. What is the significance of the voice-over in the film?
5. What messages do you think could be conveyed through the seasonal markers in the film?
6. What messages do you think could be conveyed through Pauline’s high school cross-country team in the film?
7. Teenage pregnancy is a highly political and hot-button issue. Carry out some research to find out about the debates regarding the pro-choice movement and the anti-choice (pro-life/right-to-life) movement in the States. Discuss to what extent these debates are reflected in the film. What stance(s) does the film have as far as these pro-choice and anti-choice movements are concerned?
8. Think about some teen movies you have seen and discuss how much Juno has in common with them.
9. Make a comparison between Juno’s house and Mark and Vanessa’s house. How would a comparison help you understand these three characters?
10. In what ways would you call Juno a coming-of-age film? Give examples.
11. What is your reaction to the film’s treatment of the adoption issue?
12. Comment on the film’s representation of masculinity by examining how Paulie, Juno’s father and Mark are depicted in the film.
13. Examine the film’s representation of “girlhood”. Is it stereotypical? Why? Why not?
14. Examine to what extent Juno is represented as an individual with sexual agency.
15. Comment on the feminist subtext of the film.
16. Essay topic: Write an essay discussing the following statement by Jessica L. Willis (2008): “In Juno, a young girl’s body is marked as a text on which cultural confusions about sex, gender and sexuality get played out.”

© Ali Nihat Eken, Istanbul, December 2009

Suggested readings:
Carolyn Gage (2008). Juno: reproductively commodified. Off Our Backs (38)1.
Haines, Ruby, McCaslin, Mantilla and Rodgers (2007). Juno: Feminist or not? Off our backs. (37)4.
Jessica L. Willis (2008). Sexual subjectivity: A semiotic analysis of girlhood, sex and sexuality in the film Juno. Society and Culture, 12:240-256.
Pamela Thoma. Buying up baby. Feminist Media Studies, Dec2009, Vol. 9 Issue 4.
Richard Barsam & Dave Monahan (2010). Looking at movies: An introduction to film. New York: Norton.
Susan Bordo (1993, 2004). Unbearable weight: Feminism, western culture, and the body (10th anniversary edition.). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Buy the DVD.

[Teşekkür: Yekta Kopan'a, yukarıdaki fotoğrafını yayınlama izni verdiği ve özgeçmiş bilgilerine ulaşmamda yardımcı olduğu için teşekkür ederim.]

Yekta Kopan Kimdir?

1968’de doğdu. Hayalet Gemi dergisindeki çalışmalarıyla tanındı. İlk kitabı Fildişi Karası 2000 yılında yayımlandı. 2006 yılında İstanbul Uluslararası Tiyatro Festivali bünyesinde Tiyatro DOT tarafından sahnelenen ve bir Bülent Erkmen projesi olan İki Kişilik Bir Oyun’un metnini yazdı. Oyun Almanya, İtalya ve Hollanda’da sahnelendi. dtv (Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag) tarafından yayınlanan Alles Blaue, alles Grüne dieser Welt seçkisinde bir öyküsüyle yer aldı. Daha Önce Tanışmış mıydık? adındaki e-kitabı altKitap.com tarafından okura ulaştırıldı. 6 yaş öncesi için yazdığı ve Şilili ressam Alex Pelayo tarafından resimlenen çocuk kitabı Burun, Marsık Yayıncılık tarafından 2009 yılında yayımlandı. Aşk Mutfağından Yalnızlık Tarifleri 2002 yılında Sait Faik Hikâye Armağanı’na, Karbon Kopya Dünya Kitap 2007 Yılın Telif Kitabı Ödülü’ne değer görüldü.

Mevsim Normalleri (Yekta Kopan)

["Mevsim Normalleri"ni, Yekta Kopan'ın 2001 yılında Can Yayınları'ndan çıkan ve 2002 Sait Faik Hikaye Armağanı ödülünü kazanan Aşk Mutfağından Yalnızlık Tarifleri isimli kitabında bulabilirsiniz. ]

1. Yekta Kopan’ın hikayesi, haber müdürünün sözleri ile başlamaktadır. Bu sözler hikayeye ve okuyucunun hikayeyi anlamasına nasıl yön vermektedir?
2. Hikayedeki anlatıcının özelliği nedir? Kopan’ın böylesi bir anlatıcı seçmesindeki neden(ler) ne olabilir? Yorumlayınız.
3. Yekta Kopan’ın hikayesinde okuyucu nasıl konumlandırılmıştır? Hikaye ve okuyucu arasındaki ilişkiyi hikayeyi okurken kendinizi gözlemleyerek değerlendiriniz. Daha sonra sınıftaki arkadaşlarınıza onların gözlemlerinin ne olduğunu sorarak karşılaştırma yapınız.
4. Hikayedeki anlatıcının kadına yaklaşımını değerlendiriniz.
5. Kopan, hikayesine neden “Mevsim Normalleri” ismini vermiş olabilir? Yorumlayınız.
6. “Sefalıköy” kasabasının adına, hikaye içinde özel bir anlam yükleyebilir miyiz?
7. Sefalıköy kasabası halkı hikayede neyi temsil etmektedir? Davranışlarının ardında hangi nedenler yatmaktadır? Kasaba halkı size neyi anlatmaktadır?
8. Hikayenin ilk paragraflarında rastladığımız hemşire ile ilgili anlatımlar medyanın kullandığı teknikleri anlamamıza nasıl yardımcı oluyor. Televizyonda ya da diğer medya metinlerinde hikayedekine benzer örnekler bulabilir misiniz? Bulduğunuz örnekleri arkadaşlarınızla tartışın.
9. “Mevsim Normalleri”nin diğer bölümlerini de dikkatle inceleyerek medyanın haber hazırlarken kullandığı teknikleri bulunuz. Bu tekniklerin arkasındaki anlamları ve seyircinin üzerindeki olası etkilerini tartışınız. Sizce her bir seyirci aynı şekilde etkilenebilir mi? Nedenleri tartışınız.

© Ali Nihat Eken, İstanbul, Ekim 2009
(Lütfen, kaynak göstererek kullanınız)

Yekta Kopan’ın internet sitesi / Yekta Kopan’ın Can Yayınları’ndaki internet sitesi / Yekta Kopan’ın NTV’deki Gece ve Gündüz Programı / Yekta Kopan’ın NTV’deki Programının Video Galerisi /

1. Hikayenin ilk paragrafında Mungan’ın kullandığı zıtlıklar hikayeye nasıl katkıda bulunmaktadır?
2. Kasetin dökümünü yapan Sibel’in bu işi yaparken yaşadığı duygu değişikliklerini örneklendiriniz. Bu değişiklikleri yazar bize hangi yollarla hissettiriyor?
3. Kaset dökümü yapmanın bu hikayedeki sembolik anlamı nedir?
4. Kasetteki “ses” neden bu kadar önemlidir? Neyi temsil eder?
5. Mungan, Sibel yoluyla ötekileştirme konusunda bizlere ne söylemektedir? Sibel, arkadaşını neden ve nasıl ötekileştirmektedir?
6. Sibel’in arkadaşını “normalleştirme” çabalarını anlatan ifadeleri bulunuz? Bunu neden yapmakatadır?
7. Sibel’in annesinin sözlerini neden önemsemek zorundayız? Bu sözler bize ne anlatmaktadır?
8. Hikayede aydın olma nasıl tanımlanmaktadır? Yorumlayınız.
9. Hikayede aile kavramı nasıl tarif edilmektedir? Katılıyor musunuz? Neden?
10. Murathan Mungan’ın hikayesinde bir yolculuk anlatıldığını kabul edersek, bu yolculuk Sibel ve sizin için ne anlam ifade eder? Sibel ve siz yolculuğun sonunda ne bulursunuz? Sizce yolculuk bitmiş midir? Sibel için bitmiş midir? Ya sizin için?
11. Mungan, hikayesinde neden “1. tekil anlatıcı” kullanmamış olabilir? Kullansaydı hikayede sizce nasıl bir farklılık olurdu?
12. Mungan’ın hikayesi, içinde yaşadığınız toplumu ne açıdan anlatmakta ve eleştirmektedir?

© Ali Nihat Eken, İstanbul, Ekim 2009

Yararlı bağlantılar: Murathan Mungan: The Muse of Mardin /

Representations of Turkish Immigrants in Turkish-German Cinema: Tevfik Baser’s 40 Square Meters of Germany and Fatih Akin’s Head-On

Author: Ali Nihat Eken
Publisher: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
Paperback, 80 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 363917416X
ISBN-13: 978-3639174168

Since their arrival into Germany in the 1960s, Turkish immigrants have always drawn the attention of filmmakers. The German immigrant cinema of the 1970s and 1980s focused on the harsh living and working conditions of these immigrants; however, it very often depicted immigrants in one-dimensional roles. Since the mid-1990s, however, there has been a change in the portrayals of Turkish immigrants in a new wave of films made by young German-Turkish filmmakers challenging cultural stereotypes about Turks. This book examines one film from the earlier phase of migrant cinema – Tevfik Baser’s 40 Square Meters of Germany (1986) and one film from the most recent phase – Fatih Akin’s Head-On (2004) and aims to demonstrate how Turkish immigrants are represented in these films and whether the cinematic representations of the Turkish immigrants have changed over the years.

To buy the book: Amazon USA / Amazon UK

Sevgi Soysal (1936-1976)
Turkish short story writer and novelist

The questions below are based on the English translation of “Hanife” that first appeared in Southern Humanities Review, Vol. XXVI, no. 2 (Spring 1992), pp. 145-152.

The same version is also available in “Short Stories by Turkish Women Writers” (1988, 1994) Translated by Nilüfer Mizanoğlu Reddy.
Publisher: Indiana University Turkish Studies.

1. Comment on Sevgi Soysal’s use of setting in the first paragraph. How does it contribute to our understanding of the story?
2. What is the reason for the emphasis on Hanife’s fists in the first paragraph?
3. What link(s) can you establish between Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and Hanife as depicted in the first two paragraphs?
4. How does the first paragraph introduce the theme of gender roles? Find other examples of gender roles in the rest of the story.
5. Comment on Sevgi Soysal’s use of narrative voices in “Hanife”. How does the author’s technique affect our understanding of the story?
6. Comment on Sevgi Soysal’s use of “darkness” and “light” in the first two paragraphs.
7. Discuss the significance of guns as depicted in the second paragraph.
8. What is the significance of the old woman’s song?
9. How do women and children react to Hanife’s death? What makes them act in the way they do?
10. Identify how Sevgi Soysal depicts the passing of time in the first three paragraphs.
11. What is the function of the poplar tree in the story?
12. What does “Ahmet Aga” represent in the story?
13. At the end of the fifth paragraph, the narrator says that honor is “like the sky”? Why?
14. What is the significance of Esma’s old shack in the story?
15. Make a list of the adjectives, nouns and noun phrases used for describing Hanife. What do they reveal about the society in which Hanife lives?
16. What is the connection between “land” and “women” in the story?
17. What does the story tell you about women and economic (in)dependence?
18. Do you think that women are the only victims in the story? What about men? Would you call them victims as well?
19. Essay Topic: In “Who is who in contemporary women’s writing” (2001), Jane Eldridge Miller writes that Sevgi Soysal’s characters are “rebels, usually from provincial backgrounds, trying to find solutions to personal problems which are connected to larger social issues” (p. 306). In light of this quotation, discuss whether you would call Hanife a rebel.

© Ali Nihat Eken, İstanbul, June 2009
Useful link: Study Questions for “Bliss”

1. What is the significance of choosing a small town as the setting for “The Lottery”? How is it described in the opening paragraph of the story? Why is it unnamed?
2. What could be the significance of the summer season for the story? What is the significance of the date “June 27th”? [Suggested text: J. Yarmove's Jackson's "The lottery". Explicator (1994), 52, 242-245]
3. How does Shirley Jackson prepare the reader for the main theme of the story in the second and the third paragraphs? For example, what could be the reason for an emphasis on the name “Delacroix”? What could Bobby Martin’s surname signify? [Suggested reading: Helen E. Nebeker's "The Lottery": Symbolic Tour de Force in American Literature, Mar1974, Vol. 46 Issue 1]
4. What is the symbolic value of the stones?
5. What do Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves and Mr. Martin represent in the story?
6. Discuss the symbolic value of the three legged-stool and the black box?
7. What does Old Man Warner represent in the story?
8. What is the significance of the surname “Hutchinson”?
9. What does the lottery mean to the townspeople in the story? Do they all have the same reaction? Do they question their obedience? Why? Why not? Provide examples.
10. What could be the significance of the 3rd person narration in “The Lottery”? What could be the impact of this on the readers?
11. What does the story reveal about the place of men and women in this small town? Give specific examples from the story
12. What critique of capitalism does the story seem to be offering?
13. What does the story’s title reveal about our everyday lives?
14. What does the story reveal about human nature?
15. What makes the ending of the story so shocking?
16. Identify examples of irony in the story and discuss them.
17. Read Shirley Jackson’s husband Stanley Edgar Hyman’s comment on Jackson and discuss how “The Lottery” reflects the historical context of its times: “Her fierce visions of dissociation and madness, of alienation and withdrawal, of cruelty and terror, have been taken to be personal, even neurotic, fantasies.  Quite the reverse: they are a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb.” [as cited in Joan Wylie Hall's Fallen Eden in Shirley Jackson's The Road Through The Wall, REN, 46.4, Summer 1994, p. 265]

© Ali Nihat Eken, İstanbul, May 2009

1. What is the significance of the first person narration in Ralp Ellison’s “Battle Royal”?
2. Why does the narrator need to first discover that he is an invisible man in order to understand who he is?
3. What is the significance of the grandfather’s dying speech? Why does he call himself a traitor and a spy in the enemy’s country?
4. Comment on the significance of the circus imagery as used in the story. Give examples.
5. In “Battle Royal”, animal imagery is used very often. Identify the references to animals in the story (for example, “lion”, “baboon”, “bird”, “panda”, “cottonmouth”, “wolf”, “crab”, “rat”…) and discuss how they contribute to the story.
6. Examine the references to the “magnificent blonde” in the story. What animal imagery is used in her portrayal? What does she mean to the white audience? What does she mean to the black boys taking part in the battle royal? How do the black boys react to her and why?
7. Examine the narrator’s reactions towards the “magnificent blonde”. Give examples.
8. What is the resemblance between the white female body and the black male bodies as depicted in the story?
9. Why do you think there is always an emphasis on “blindness” in the story? Provide examples.
10. What is the significance of Booker T. Washington in the story?
11. What is the symbolic value of the battle royal?
12. What could be the significance of the smoky atmosphere in the hall where the battle royal takes place?
13. What is the significance of the fight on an electrified rug?
14. How does Ellison’s story challenge the respectability of the white Southern male?
15. At the end of the story, the narrator dreams that he is at a circus with his grandfather: why does the grandfather refuse to laugh at the clowns?
16. Comment on the following quote from the story: “To Whom It May Concern… Keep This Nigger-Boy Running”.
17. What do you think about the ending of the story? To what extent do you think the narrator has gained maturity?
18. Examine the theme of “American Dream” in the story.
19. How does the story define the concept of “success”?

© Ali Nihat Eken, İstanbul, May 2009.
Useful links: Ralph Ellison’s A Party Down At The Square / An Interview with Ellison /

The World in Alice Walker’s Eye (2006, April 10). School of Languages. Podcast retrieved http://sl.sabanciuniv.edu/eng/?PodCast/PodCasts.php