Istanbul Greek identities in film discourse

ABSTRACT Considering the prominent role of popular culture in forming our perceptions about national/ ethnic identities and historical memory, in the present study, we explore the way in which Greek-Turkish relationships as well as the ethnic identities implicated are depicted in the Greek blockbuster film Α Touch of Spice/ Politiki Kouzina, which deals with the Greek community of Istanbul in the 1950s and the 1960s. For the study of ethnic identities in the cinematic text, a social constructionist framework for the analysis of identities in discourse is adopted. The analysis suggests that the film maker, being part of the ethnic group, adopts an ingroup Istanbul Greek gaze. In this way, the emphasis placed on the similarities with the Istanbul Greek self and on the distinctions from the Greek and the Turkish other could be seen as an ideological strategy, through which an ethnic “body” is constituted.