A transboundary cinema : Tunç Okan’s trilogy of im/migration

Doctoral Thesis

Tunç Okan is an independent emigrant filmmaker born in 1942 in Istanbul, Turkey. He started his filmmaking career in 1974 with his film Otobüs (The Bus). This film was followed by only three other films to date: Drôle de samedi (Funny Saturday, 1985), Mercedes mon Amour (The Yellow Mercedes, 1992), and Umut Üzümleri (Grapes of Hope, 2013). Although neither the filmmaker nor any film critic has so far referred to the filmmaker's first three films as a trilogy, these films are sufficiently unified by their dystopian narratives, themes, and their search of home and identity to constitute a trilogy. In this trilogy, each film corresponds to a different stage of im/migration, namely the departure, the (dis)integration, and the return. Observing this, I call these films as the Trilogy of Im/migration. Okan’s cinema is what I call “transboundary cinema”. I define transboundary cinema as a cinema that transgresses boundaries, be that national, cultural, political, aesthetic, generic, or...Show moreTunç Okan is an independent emigrant filmmaker born in 1942 in Istanbul, Turkey. He started his filmmaking career in 1974 with his film Otobüs (The Bus). This film was followed by only three other films to date: Drôle de samedi (Funny Saturday, 1985), Mercedes mon Amour (The Yellow Mercedes, 1992), and Umut Üzümleri (Grapes of Hope, 2013). Although neither the filmmaker nor any film critic has so far referred to the filmmaker's first three films as a trilogy, these films are sufficiently unified by their dystopian narratives, themes, and their search of home and identity to constitute a trilogy. In this trilogy, each film corresponds to a different stage of im/migration, namely the departure, the (dis)integration, and the return. Observing this, I call these films as the Trilogy of Im/migration. Okan’s cinema is what I call “transboundary cinema”. I define transboundary cinema as a cinema that transgresses boundaries, be that national, cultural, political, aesthetic, generic, or still, others yet to be defined. Okan’s cinema crosses not only political and national boundaries but also the boundaries between cultures, languages, genres; between independent and commercial filmmaking practices; between writing, acting, and directing.
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Transboundary

Tunç Okan

Otobüs (The Bus)

Drôle de samedi (Funny Saturday)

Mercedes mon Amour (The Yellow Mercedes)

Umut Üzümleri (Grapes of Hope)

im/migration