The Woman Has No Name?: female characters in Turkish cinema through the eyes of female directors

Abstract

It can be observed that there was a quantitative increase in the films of female directors in Turkey in 2000s and these directors started to create their own cinematic language. These directors produce films by being influenced by the patriarchal society they live in and deal with the problems women experience in that society. In this study, it will be discussed how female directors who continue their lives in a patriarchal society reflect female characters in their films. The reason for including the year 2010 and later in the study is that the female directors in the study both dealt with the problems related to women in their films. At the same time, there are similarities in the problems of the female characters in the films of these directors too. In the research, women’s problems, and the places of characters in private and public spaces are examined in the context of feminist theory and four films of four female directors in Turkey were discussed. These films (1) are Yeşim Ustaoğlu’s Purgatory (2012), Pelin Esmer’s Watchtower (2012), Emine Emel Balcı’s Until I Lose My Breath (2015) and Ahu Öztürk›s Dust Cloth (2015). As a result, it has been determined that female directors in Turkey go beyond the classical narrative cinema and deal with the main problems of women