The Relationship Between Religion and Cinema in the Context of the Construction of a Harmonious World: “Life of Pi” Example

By the very first movie in 1902, the first sound-on-movie in 1927 and the first Turkish movie in 1914, cinema is an important art form in our lives from 1895. Throughout the history of 120 years of cinema, as with all areas of life, has been a close relationship with religion or religious phenomena directly or indirectly. This relationship has lead to positive or negative results but has been effective in each case. The movies like "The Message" which issues the spread of Islam and "The Passion” which issues the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life are religious films. Beside them movies with subliminal messages also reveal how an important force lies to create religious perception created in this area... In this regard, one of the films that are surrounded by the influence of Hinduism's belief in God “Life of Pi "is an important example. Life of Pi (2012) is an 4 Oscar-winning movie which adapted to the cinema by David Magee by Yann Martel's novel of the same name and directed by Ang Lee. In the movie Pi (Piscine Pattel) is an Indian boy who struggles for survival in a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean during 227 days with a Bengal tiger after the sinking of a ship. The movie has a clear message which “leads to belief in God”. Alongside this message it uses many metaphors to impress the audience and gives a magnificent example for how religion could be used in the cinema. According to the film Pi is a boy questioning beliefs from childhood to find the meaning of life, to recognize God. It’s possible to see him as a child who wants to be a baptized Christian and prays like a Muslim besides being a Hindu. He is questioning a combination of religion. After his father’s quote "there is no difference between to believe in everything at the same time and nothing to believe in" he understands that it’s not probable to be a follower of all beliefs, but this does not also mean to prevent from understanding the others. Today movies like Life of Pi show us how cinema will be a conscious way to strengthen the sayings against Islamophobia and religious wars.