Kurdish Narratives of Conflict: the Politics of the Kurdish Question in Turkish Cinema

Abstract

Although there has been a considerable amount of research on the Kurdish Question in general, so far, little attention has been given to the relationship between the Kurdish Question and its depiction and constitution in film. The study of films offers insights into how aesthetics inform, determine, enable, and naturalize specific interpretations and actions. This article sees films as narratives and will employ a narrative analysis method that emphasizes the role of setting, characterization, and emplotment as central pillars of any story to examine how four Turkish-Kurdish films understand and represent the Kurdish Question, self and other, and the implications of this representation. The analysis of the films not only reflects on a distinct Kurdish perspective on the matter, but also illustrates the diversity of interpretations and discourses and, as such, broadens the scope of ideas for possible behaviour and solutions to the old conflict.