Disembodied Masses, Suffering Spirits: The Unbearable Weightiness Of The “Being” In New Turkish Films
Disembodied Masses, Suffering Spirits: The Unbearable Weightiness Of The “Being” In New Turkish Films

Summary/Abstract: As a source of inspiration for the modern cinema, existentialism provided a base for the triangulation of the relation between modern narration and space, time and body. As Turkish directors generally possessed totally contrasting/opposing perceptions of these concepts, they tended to maintain a distance between the modern cinematographic narration and their film making style, although some of them used the key concepts of emancipation, alienation and loneliness of the “subject” in some films, especially in the years following the 1980 military coup. The aim of this work is to conduct a survey of the Neo Islamic films which explore the suffering spirits of these two groups: Islamic intellectuals are wedged between living as part of a disembodied mass under the premises of Islamic Philosophy (Sufism) and necessarily being a prominent “subject” as a result of belonging to the new Islamic bourgeoisie; and secular intellectuals utilize Islamic symbols and philosophy both as an inspiration for their film language and to find the answers to their existential questions and pains.

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