Germany/Turkey - GR220/320-FM205: Turkish German Cinema

GR220/GR320/FM205: Turkish German Cinema

Berlin, Germany & Istanbul, Türkiye

Last Offered: Fall Spring 2025

This course focuses on Turkish German cinema, its history and aesthetic conventions, and also introduces students to literature, music, and cultural production at large along the Turkish German axis. We will discuss questions of identity, migration, mobility, nation, and belonging, and explore how these topics have been treated cinematically and across other genres. Special emphasis will also be placed on the cities of Berlin and Istanbul.

Through on-site visits, we will explore firsthand the connections between historical context, cultural expression, social practices, and urban form, and trace the lasting impact of Turkish German entanglements and transnational cultural flows on the makeup and identity of those cities today. Sample filmmakers and other artists might include: Fatih Akın, Kutluğ Ataman, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Sabahattin Ali, and Ipek Ipekcioglu.

Course led by Prof. C. Steckenbiller and B. Germen