Geç Dönem Türk Sinemasında İstanbul İmgesi Üzerine Birkaç Not Notes on the Istanbul Image in the Late Turkish Cinema

Being the center of Turkish modernization and having significant symbolic values with respect to Turkish history, Istanbul has always been an integral part of the thematic and visual narrative of Turkish cinema. This article aims to investigate the transformation of Istanbul image in Turkish cinema through analysis of selected films that are considered to exemplify different images of Istanbul in various historical periods. The article especially focuses on the theme of nostalgia by a special emphasis on the Turkish films produced before the late 1980s. The authors claim that after modernization and intensive migration, the position of the ‘other’ in urban space fundamentally changed and this was reflected in the films in which the center of visual and thematic narrative was Istanbul. The article analyzes selected Turkish films in the late period within a similar theoretical context with a claim that a nostalgic Istanbul image has been completely disappeared in those films. Notes on the Istanbul Image in the Late Turkish Cinema.