INTERROGATING COLLECTIVE MEMORY, IDENTITY AND BELONGING
moderated by Gönül Dönmez-Collin
In a republic that rose from the flames of an empire and has seen three coup d’états in its modern history, collective memory is fragile and the questions of identity and belonging are often veiled by the state, society or communal pressure. The most prominent woman film-maker of contemporary Turkish cinema, Yeşim Ustaoğlu has taken a political stance interrogating guilt from loss of integrity; the »denied identities« of a nation striving for homogeneity and the amnesia surrounding the traumas of history. Her characters are determined by their spatio-temporality, the relationship of the individual to the architectural environment appearing as a crucial element. Identity is pivotal to all her films and the transition, as a private person and as a citizen, is the over-riding theme. The discussion will explore Ustaoğlu’s work as a conscientious artist and citizen, highlighting her key motifs.
Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Turkish director and screenwriter Yeşim Ustaoğlu was born in 1960 in Çaykara. After completing several award-winning shorts, she made her feature film debut in 1994 with The Trace. Her 1999 film, Journey to the Sun received international recognition and was awarded with the Blue Angel at the Berlin Film Festival, among others. Her other films Waiting for the Clouds, Pandora’s Box, and Araf also won several awards at festivals internationally.
Films by Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Araf (Somewhere in-between) 2012 | Pandora’nın kutusu (Pandora’s Box) 2008 | Sirtlarindaki hayat (Short) 2004 | Bulutları beklerken (Waiting for the Clouds) 2003 | Güneşe Yolculuk (Journey to the Sun) 1999 | İz (The Trace) 1994 | Hotel (Short) 1992 | Duet (Short) 1990| Magnafantagna (Short) 1987 | Bir ani yakalamak (Short) 1984
Gönül Dönmez-Colin
Gönül Dönmez-Colin is a fi lm scholar who specialises in the cinema of the Middle east and Central Asia, about which she has produced leading publications. she acts as an advisor to the Calcutta Film Festival, the Kerala International Film Festival, the International Film Festival of Mannheim-Heidelberg and the Samsung Women’s international Film Festival and has been a member of several juries.