Kurdish Filmmaking in Turkey: History and Narratives

This research investigates the history and politics of cultural production by examining Kurdish filmmaking in Turkey. Sadik provide an analysis of contemporary films and filmmakers to explore how Kurdish cinema in Turkey is situated in broader, global political-economic structures. By examining this important case through the lens of history and memory, Sadik clarify how production and aesthetics in Kurdish cinema point to important systemic processes. Sadik uses three main research strategies in this study: a historical survey of Kurds in Turkey, an analysis of ten semi-structured interviews with contemporary Kurdish directors and an analysis of films directed by Kurdish filmmakers in Turkey. Data have been collected from primary sources, such as interviews, film screenings and historical records, as well as secondary sources, such as monographs and journal articles. Using these approaches, this research reconsiders how legitimacy, hegemony and the social order in nation-states like Turkey are maintained and how filmmakers challenge these forces. This research shows that Kurdish filmmakers in Turkey, by grappling with several intersecting forms of oppression, provide important insights into systemic social inequality in their films. This thesis contributes to the fields of political and economic anthropology, sociology of culture, anthropology of violence, sociology and anthropology of the state, development studies, Kurdish studies, Middle East studies, comparative history and film studies.