Representing a Postmodern City: Portrayal of Istanbul in Recent Turkish Films

Representing a Postmodern City: Portrayal of Istanbul in Recent Turkish Films Melek Atabey

The city and cultural texts • The organization of space as embodied in the urban culture depicts the way in which social power is constructed in the cultural fabric of urbanity. • Space becomes a text reflected in literary and artistic conventions, which at the same time offer a tool to understand the nature of social relationships in general.

The cultural and social representation of the city can be understood better by looking at the collective/shared images like films, photos, and pictures to reveal what is represented and hidden. • The studies on the representation of the city and the place in various symbolic and cultural forms are related to the discussions on modernity, postmodernity, cultural identity and the relationship of the individual with the place.

The portrayal of the city in cinema adds new dimensions to these studies since it has been considered one of “the mechanisms and the heroes of modernity”. • The films shape the way we understand the city and the urban practices, and also influence the way we construct the image of the city. • They, like other cultural products, are cultural texts that in some way mirror an age: how people live, love, work, dress, and talk etc.

The City • Chaotic landscape • A labyrinth • Complex and initially indecipherable structure • Heterogeneous and diasporic • A creative disorder, an instructive confusion

It is vital that we understand the social and cultural experience of cities in terms not of place, but of ‘space’. (Michel de Certeau 1984:115) • The city is always more diverse, more messy and more active than reformers find comfortable or comprehensible.

The City • The city: the interaction of historically and geographically specific institutions, social relations of production and reproduction, practices of government, forms and media of communication, and so forth. • By calling this diversity 'the city', we ascribe to it a coherence of integrity. • The city, then, is above all as Bocock argues an “imagined environment”. (Bocock: 422)

City as an imagined place • The city: chosen metaphor for the experience of modern world. • The figure of the city, as both real and an imaginary place: a ready map for reading, interpretation and comprehension.

The present discussion of space in the city and its corresponding cultural and cinematic forms is informed by the theory of cultural geographer David Harvey. • The parallel processes that Harvey terms the ‘urbanization of capital’ and the ‘urbanization of consciousness’ work to shape specific interests that in turn police the city. • This consciousness is a negotiation between and amongst five loci of power: individualism, class, community, the state and the family, all of which interact with capital to form and reify the way in which we conceptualize the city.

Harvey (2000) illuminates the distinctively capitalist production of space: “Capitalism thereby builds and rebuilds geography in its own image.” • As sections of the city fall prey to urban renewal schemes, working class areas are gutted, spruced up, resold, in the hopes that more affluent populations will turn dumps into booming downtowns. These processes intensify in the city that necessarily engages in inter-urban competition.

Istanbul is a prime example of this intensification. • As capital becomes urbanized it is also globalized, and the idea of selling place in a global economy becomes a city’s main focus.

Istanbul has not gone through the urbanistic process like Paris and NY has gone through but still it reflects a metamorphoses, alienation and deformation like other big cities around the world, which are the stations of new capitalism and globalization. • As it is urbanized it looks like more and more a provincial town. In 1990s the rate of urbanization was 55 % and 45% of the people in Istanbul live in the shanty towns/ghettos. • These people are being labeled by the 'real or old Istanbulite' as 'the outsiders' who should be tamed or removed from the city. • Istanbul caught between the modernity, globalization and provincialisms. It bears 'little disasters' and it is a mad and excessive place.

The interpretation of the city, and of all its representations both in cultural products, filmic and otherwise, necessitates a negotiation of the twin processes of the urbanization of capital and that of consciousness, and of their particular spatial manifestations.

City and the cinema • The city as a cinematographic place offers infinite artistic opportunities. As Larry Ford (1994:119) documents that “the role of cities in film gradually changed over time from serving as mere background scenery to acting as the equivalent of major characters in many stories”. • The city is no longer a passive decor/setting. It shapes and influences the narrative and the atmosphere of the film. Like the technical elements, the urban decor/setting becomes part of this cinematographic language. • Cities like Berlin, New York, Rome, Paris and Istanbul constitute the leading character in both the thematic and stylistic structures of the films.

Istanbul sets a perfect example to illustrate the cinematic production of a place. With its dreamlike, inspiring and mystic aura, it creates a 'kinetic and kinematic' environment. • In many films Istanbul becomes the symbol of the country. Therefore, it is not difficult to see the reason why Turkish cinema has been ‘Istanbul-centric’ (A. Suner, 2002: 88).

In addition to the globalization, gentrification and ghettoization, which characterizemodern metropolis today , in cities like Istanbul one can see that the traditional, the modern and the postmodern live side by side, having constant tension and struggle with each other. • Living in Istanbul, a city straddling Europe and Asia means to be exposed to the full force of Eastern and Western myths. It is to live with constant reminders of the global histories of two worlds in which most people of Istanbul often feel in between. • Istanbul, the historical, economic and cultural capital of the country contains several distinct social worlds. • The city of Istanbul, to many people of Turkey has many contradictory meanings. On the one hand it is dirty, crowded, congested, criminal, corrupted, alien, too big, too greedy, too cruel, too capitalistic. On the other hand, it is the place of endless and golden opportunities, beauty, big hopes, fame and fortune.

Cinematic reconstruction of Istanbul • 1950s and1960s: • The cinematic space (except the ‘village films’) was mainly Istanbul. Istanbul was not an ordinary place but a space which shaped and constructed the story lines. In classical Yeşilçam melodramas, it was used as an inner setting in which one could see the villas, gardens, seafronts, piers etc. • But, the social realist films more on the gaps between the classes, poverty, the problems of the migrants. These films looked at Istanbul from outside not from inside. Until the 1960s, films do not start with the entrance of the city as the people are already there but then the films show the migrants aarrival to Istanbul from Haydarpaşa train station, a place which becomes the symbol of the perspective of the outsider. Istanbul becomes the center of all evil things for them

1970s: • The inner migration and the problems of the new comers are told not only in social realist films but also in more popular family comedies and dramas. The emphasis is more on the differences between rich and poor (love relationships between the rich and poor) the solidarity between them and on the ways they find to cope with the city.

1980s: • The films focus more on the individual. The poor is depicted as dignified, honest, modest people and the is represented as degenerated,bad, emotionally deprived.

1990: • The previliged status of Istanbul in Turkish films starts changing. Turkish films goes away from Istanbul to small towns. Even in the films in which the story is told in Istanbul, the city becomes a big/mega town rather than a city and turns into a clastrophobic space.

Cinematic reconstruction of Istanbul I will focus on: • Eşkiya/Bandit (Yavuz Turgul, 1997), • Tabutta Rövaşata/Sommersault in a Coffin (Derviş Zaim, 1996), • Ağır Roman/Slow Roman (Mustafa Altıoklar, 1997), • Filler ve Çimen/Elephants and Grass (Derviş Zaim, 1999), • Uzak/Distant (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2002), • Anlat İstanbul/Tales of Istanbul (Ümit Ünal, 2005) • These films have been made during the time when discourses on modernity and development have been replaced by discourses on globalization by which Istanbul came to be defined, and the senses of place, belonging, and identity have been questioned more than ever. • Let me now turn on to my preliminary observations on these films

First, in each film we see that there is more than one Istanbul: a visible and an invisible one: Istanbul of the powerful, of the poor, of the criminal, of the marginal, of the lonely, of the outsider, of the excluded and so on. • Beautiful silhouette of once upon a time graceful, happy, joyful, and ideal city of Istanbul seems to be reflected now from a broken lens through which one can see the crisis, the alienation and the repression of the individuals who live in a hostile, distorted and chaotic cityscapes. • In this way Istanbul becomes the city of being in betweens. It is a postmodern city, which goes beyond the perception and the cognition of the modern subject who feels being trapped between time and space, and between reality and image. • In these films the city of Istanbul becomes the metaphor and the symbol of the dilemmas of Turkish society through the characters, the storyline and the atmosphere.

Second, the center and the periphery and the power relations in the society are represented through the use of different places and spaces. The luxurious hotels and run down hotels, the coffee houses and nightclubs, the villas and small flats, the banks and the government buildings, small shops, the cemeteries, the mosques, the churches are the main spaces which keep appearing in these films, reminding us the heterotopias of Foucault. • These are heterogeneous places which appear in times of personal crisis and during the times when there is a deviation from the socially accepted norms. On the spatial level, heterotopia is a situation in which the alien and the misfit spaces overlap. • Heterotopia is another space which is actually lived and socially created, concrete and abstract at the same time. Lefebvre (1991) too states that materiality, representation and images of a place are not separate worlds.

Third, when we zoom in to inner worlds of people more closely we see the influence of urban life on the psychology of individual. • People who live on the margins of the Istanbul get killed, bullied, beaten up, and tortured. Existing in a crazy, fast, cruel and monstrous city like Istanbul becomes a struggle, which swings between life and death. In this way Istanbul becomes the source of the urban anxiety, urban depression and mania.

Somersault in a Coffin • Fourth each film reflects different energies, colors and rhythms of the city. • Somersault in a Coffin can be described “a real Istanbul film” since it intensely uses the known sites and images of the city like Fatih Bridge, Rumeli Castle, Aşiyan Cemetery, Galata Bridge. However, in most scenes the Bosphorus looks submerged in a cold and hopeless blue.

The only time the film uses the warm colours is when we see the inner places and the drug-user girl, with whom Mahsun, the main character of the film, is in love. • The warmth of inner spaces is contrasted with the coldness of the outer spaces of the city, which becomes 'agoraphobic' experience for Mahsun and his friends. Mahsun cannot go outside the city, which excludes and marginalizes him. For Mahsun, living in Istanbul is like somersault in a coffin everyday.

By all accounts, he might as well be dead and buried: His bleak life consists of stealing cars to sleep in and catching birds for food. He gets himself arrested, but the police already know that he is a scam and beat him up instead. • Despite the impossible odds, he persists, survives, and somersaults in the coffin that is his Istanbul-a city where ancient, epic vistas share sidewalks with the downtrodden. The film is about the resilient human spirit's ability to balance the contrasting conditions of life and remain wildly stubborn against destructive forces. • On the other hand, there is a second Istanbul in the film, which is experienced by the tourists. That is the Istanbul, which is marketed to the global consumer society.

Elephants and Grass • Elephants and Grass deals with the human soul caught up between the power and the chaos. The film paints the city with dull and pale colours which makes it look like a soulless, sad, and gloomy place. • One of the main characters is Havva who is about to run the Eurasia Marathon. She dreams about the prize money that can help her crippled brother who was injured in the conflict in South Eastern Turkey. She works in a factory and gets food aid from a luxurious hotel in Tarabya, Istanbul. A local Mafioso tries to get hold of the same hotel and in the process the owner gets killed. The son of the owner senses who’s behind the killing and from there on the intricate story moves from an organized crime story to corrupt politicians and state officials mixed with cocaine smuggling, crazed hit-men and large amount of money on the loose.

The old quarters and side streets of Istanbul as seen in Bandit and Slow Roman become the home of the other, the criminal, the repressed, and in these places people live by their rules and orders, and they are constantly being chased and punished either by the authorities or by the mafia gangs. In both films, the vivid and sharp colours match with the extremities of the characters and the streets. In Slow Roman, the love story of Tina, a prostitute, and Salih, the hero of the Cholera Street, a rundown cosmopolitan area in the heart of Istanbul, is told among the inhabitants from very different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds living on top of one another. The films deal with the disintegration of family as well as the breaking down of hopes and the dreams of people. Slow Roman

The grand drama of Bandit is built on the theme that "life just couldn’t measure up to love. But death could." Baran, the Bandit, leaves jail after serving thirty-five years and travels to Istanbul, a city unknown to him, to seek revenge on the betrayer and to recover his lost love. Traditional honor codes clash with modern treachery. Baran and a young man he rescues, take refuge with each other, trying to survive in the marginal side of Istanbul. Baran symbolizes the good old days which had passed away in the 35 years that he had spent in prison. He is the living symbol of a time when people were innocent and money had not yet seeped into people's souls. This poetic film focuses on the changing face of Turkey, and exposes the rotten values and fading compassion in the country. Bandit

Distant • In Distant however, the violence, tensions and alienation is told on an individual level. Mahmut works as a photographer for a tile factory. His days are spread out with the tedious rhythm of paper filling; amorphous channel surfing and meetings with prostitutes. In Distant, the city is dominated by white and blue tones. • In the open spaces, Istanbul is seen covered with beautiful white snow. This strong frosty colour fades out to a dark blue when the night falls over the city. We see the city through the long walks of Yusuf, who comes to Istanbul to find a job in the merchant navy.

Distant becomes the symbol of the dreams of Yusuf, the changing family and friendship values, the silence between the individuals living side by side and the alienation of the individual to his/her environment. • The sharp and fresh feel of the outer spaces contrasts with that of Yusuf’s cousin Mahmut's flat, which reflects the depressed, resignated, and lassitude nature of Mahmut. The two broken beings of Distant have a minimal communication in their cohabitation. Unlike Yusuf, Mahmut experiences Istanbul as a stranger, showing no interest to his surroundings.

Istanbul Tales • Istanbul Tales focuses on the dark side of Istanbul, which is narrated in five different stories inspired by the well-known fairy tales. An aging clarinets turn into the Pied Piper. The innocent daughter of a Mafia godfather runs into the Snow White and seven dwarfs in Beyoğlu, the heart of Istanbul’s nightlife. • A transvestite transforms into Cinderella, a hungry unemployed Kurdish peasant become the Prince Charming of a young woman, the Sleeping Beauty, who lost her mind in an old Bosphorus mansion. Little Red Hood meets the wicked wolf in the brightly lit forest of an International airport. Before the resolution of each story, another tale starts, which runs like a backbone through the movie's fabric. The people of Istanbul, regardless of their age, gender and class transform into fairytale characters.

Darkness, night and the city lights dominate the atmosphere and the narrative of the film. • The colours of the city reflect the contrasts and the contradictions in people’s lives. The stories are being told with a fast moving rhythm. The film's screenplay shows how disparate lives can intersect and influence one another. With one murder, for example, the lives of not only the murderer and victim, but also a host of other people changes forever. • The most insignificant and unconscious act can produce awesome consequences and the main character of one tale becomes a side role in another.

Concluding… • Rilke says a fragmented life can only be told in bits and pieces. Recent Turkish films tell us the story of different people who are in a constant struggle with themselves, with each other and with Istanbul, which reflects fragmented nature of life in a big metropolis. • The main characters of the films symbolize the resistance of the Istanbul despite all the destructions made in the name of gaining more space, more capital and more power: Mahsun with his never ending struggle despite all the animosity of the people and the place, Istanbul resists exists trough the resistance and struggle of people who have been excluded by the center and ill-treated and oppressed by the periphery. This a resistance of human against the evil, the resistance of love against a loveless world. Transvestites, drug-addicts, members of petit crime gangs, migrants, the unemployed, the homeless, prostitutes become the symbols of this resistance and struggle.

Mahsun with his never ending struggle despite all the animosity of the people and the place, Havva with her daily struggle to survive despite all the obstacles and chaos, Tina, Salih and Baran with their brave and heroic fight against the evil, bad, corrupted, and inhuman, Yusuf with his childlike passion for Istanbul, Banu with her hope for a new life despite all the evils love, become angry, burn, make mistakes,get wounded, killed, collapse, disappear but one very strong part of them never surrenders to the cruel and inhuman world of the city. • The Istanbul of these films tells us the story of a resistance which has been lost and won again and again in the mysterious labyrints of a fairy tale space. These tell us that there are still different shades, lights, breaths and souls in Istanbul if one wants to live, see and feel the city not only as an utopian space but also as an “actually living and real place” without forgetting the reality that Istanbul existed, exists and will exist before and after us.

Representing a Postmodern City: Portrayal of Istanbul in Recent Turkish Films