Portrayal of Turkish-German Migratory Relations in Turkish Films of the 1980s: a Call for an Alternative Reading

Abstract

Popular imagination of an age-old and very common phenomenon - migration - depends on images and stories in circulation. Mediated images of migration, refugees and diasporas play an important role in ethnic and cultural identification processes. This article explores how Turkey has accounted for its own diasporic subjects through cinematic narratives. Focusing on two salient Turkish examples from the 1980s that contradict the dominant narrative tendencies in Turkish-German/German films of the time, this article aims to present a fresh outlook. It strives to explore how these films question stereotypes and problematize essentialist readings of Turkishness and nationhood via a descriptive-interpretive analysis.