Zehra DOĞAN / JINHA

ISTANBUL – Feminist film director Melek Özmen, in an attempt at questioning women’s place in Turkish cinema in a documentary titled “Innocent Insolent Enticing” says: “We do not see single women roles in Turkish cinema. Women don’t have their own voice. Their status and their capacity to do or not to do anything depend on a male. They can only exist and be defined with that male. Therefore, female characters are defined as ‘the woman in the shadow of man.’”  

Art, has a strong effect on social life in terms of setting models for people. Among artistic branches, cinema, with its visuality has a special place. When we consider the period beginning from 1960s-an era before the arrival of television- to the end of 1980s, it is obvious that Turkish cinema had a big impact on our daily lives. Images of movie characters such as swollen hair, spotted dresses, bell bottoms, false eyelashes and high heels are among indispensables of that period. In recent years, studies on Turkish cinema indicate that topics and roles cinema covers promote further inequality between the female and male. During the Yeşilçam period, which takes an important place in Turkish cinema, it can be observed that woman is reflected as a statue full of emotionality, compatibility, obedience to man, beauty and grace. We have talked to feminist director Melek Özmen who explores this issue in the documentary “Innocent, Insolent, Enticing”, with regard to women’s place in the cinema.

-       What urged you to make the documentary “Innocent, Insolent, Enticing”?

After I watched local movies, I got the idea to make a documentary about them. After each movie we watch we feel we are humiliated as a woman. “Innocent, Insolent, Enticing” is a response to that. My generation has grown up watching Yeşilçam movies. I could have never felt like the innocent women characters played by actresses likeTürkan Şoray and Hülya Koçyiğit. Those movies could not poison me. I loved Neriman Köksal. When I was young, I always asked myself “My God, why do not I love them but bad women? Or am I a bad woman?”. I then realized the reason, because Neriman Köksal had a character. She had her own dialog and power to move. I thought she was the character I had long been expecting to see in the cinema. It didn’t matter whether she was a good or bad character. Then while I was discussing this issue with my friends, I shared my idea of making a documentary. Thus we started...

-       Can you please explain the sentence “woman in the shadow of man”?

We do not see single women roles in Turkish cinema. Women don’t have their own voice. Their status and their capacity to do or not to do anything depend on a male. They can only exist with that man. They are defined by that man. Therefore, you cannot know about their characters if they are not defined through a male role. Women are evaluated by how they behave towards men, whether they give birth to them or not, whether they love them or not, whether they obey them or not. Thus, women characters are defined as “woman in the shadow of man”

-       What are the roles women play in Turkish cinema?

Generally, they are roles of women in the shadow of men. There are also different roles of women. Those are peasants or sacrificing women. They do not have any problems with patriarchy. They do not challenge the current system. So those women work on the field. They are a little bit brave and more visible characters. On the other hand, there are “Tomboys”, “Driver Nebahat” “Fosforlu Cevriye”. Those characters define themselves as brave. But they do not have gender. Their sexual desire is limited by male desire. All in all, in cinema, there are only women who believe sex as a duty to husband, women wholly in the shadow of man, women exist with the love of men, women, innocent and cleaning their home, looking after their children. There are also bad women. They are created in order to make men heroes. There is no depth in female characters in Turkish cinema. But women have no place to go. So we get angry with women characters, because they try to teach us the codes of men’s world like a didactic book. It is imposed “be such a woman not like that”. “Die or kill for a man. Exert yourselves.” We all rejected such roles; we can see women at very different places.

 “We need a feminist cinema”

-       The most interesting event in the movies is the violence by man -who is shown as right- against woman. What do you think about this?

The violence in those movies is not named violence. It is shown as part of love. As usually done in the media, sex and violence are shown together and thus they get rating. Violence is approached as a part of love in the cinema. Violence and love are shown as like as two peas in a pod. Those kinds of movies are concrete examples of the stereotype “male beats, envies”. There is a serious message conveyed to audiences in those kinds of movies. They try to give a message which implies that love includes slap and insulting behaviors are tolerable in love. We, women are asked to accept and get used to this idea. In the cinema, lonely in the dark, we are open to all influences of the cinema. We focus on the movie. So those movies are not only “movies”. Each one is an anecdote leaving trance on us, influencing our consciousness, making an impression on our memory. If this is the case, then Turkish cinema does not teach good things to the society. Cinema does not have to teach anything. But what it tells should not be harmful to the society and logic.     

-       What should be done to promote female-oriented cinema?

We need a feminist cinema. For sake of a feminist cinema we first need feminist individuals. Because it is not enough to be a woman in the cinema sector. We grow up with rotes. Feminist cinema is the only way to break the mould. Cinema is made in a male-dominated way. To destroy this patriarchal mentality, we need more feminist women in the cinema sector. Women should also be supported so that they can take part in the cinema as audience. Turkish Ministry of Culture does not care whether women can go to the cinema or not. Indeed, they should care and support them. This is the responsibility of the government which is supposed to promote equality between male and female to make women visible in this area. Nowadays, we can easily take camera and microphone than before. We can fictionalize in our homes. Women should not avoid producing and defining themselves in this area. Therefore we can change it. Taking part in cinema is our democratic right. We can change everything using our right to take part in cinema.

Photo – Camera: Zehra DOĞAN

(zd/hp)