Ne Doğu Ne Batı: Kezban Filmleri Üzerinden Türkiye’nin Toplumsal ve Kültürel Dönüşümünde Modernleşmenin İzleri

Cinema is not only a narrative medium, but also a structure that both reflects society and is shaped by its dynamics. In this context, social changes and transformations have directly affected the content of cinema and determined its aesthetic and thematic orientations. The process of social transformation in Turkey, which gained momentum with the transition to a multi-party political system in 1950, reshaped the narrative structure and themes of cinema, and this interaction became even more evident with the significant economic, social and cultural changes between 1960 and 1980. This transformation process also brought about the reflection of social values, family structure and changing roles of individuals on cinema. Melodrama in Yeşilçam cinema has been an important reflection of modernisation and the tensions it has created in Turkish society. This study focuses on the representation of modernisation in Yeşilçam melodrama films and how social change is reflected in the films Kezban (1968), Kezban in Rome (1970) and Kezban in Paris (1971). These films were chosen because they have all the characteristic features of the melodrama genre. Accordingly, in the first part of the study, the concept of modernisation will be briefly mentioned and Turkey's social transformations between 1950-1970 will be outlined. In the second part, the basic characteristics of Yeşilçam melodrama cinema in the 1960s will be discussed. In the last part of the study, film analyses will be carried out using the descriptive analysis method. The aim of the study is to reveal how the development and modernisation processes in Turkey in the 1960s and early 1970s are represented in these films. As a result of the analysis, the urban-peasant dichotomy representing modernity and East-West values constitutes the basic structure of the narrative in these films. All the characteristic features of melodrama, which is a conservative genre in terms of its structure, are clearly observed in all three films analysed.