Mapping Yeşilçam: A relational approach to the Turkish film industry

Abstract

Turkey’s Yeşilçam film industry produced more than 5500 films during its lifetime of 40 years. The industry had a unique narrative approach shaped around its economic model, Turkey’s ambivalent connection with modernization and the country’s domestic culture. Yet, particular characteristic qualities of the industry remained rather limited up until the last decade, in which vast databases were built up as a consequence of the digital turn. In this study, we develop a relational approach and conduct network analysis to the Yeşilçam with the aim to better understand the patterns of its constitution. Our findings suggest that Yeşilçam was not a homogenous industry as often considered by the film scholarship, rather divided into two main clusters in which professional, narrative and financial dynamics were significantly different.