Culture and Space in the Cinema of Yeşim Ustaoğlu

Yeşim Ustaoğlu is regarded as one of the most significant directors of New Turkish Cinema. As a trained architect, she incorporates spatial configurations in her films that contain numerous cultural elements revealing information about the identities of her characters. For this reason, within the scope of this study, Ustaoğlu’s feature-length fiction films are examined under the cultural components classified by Bozkurt Güvenç. In order to evaluate the interaction between culture and space, the selected sample consists of the director’s films The Trace (1994), Journey to the Sun (1999), Waiting for the Clouds (2004), Pandora’s Box (2008), Somewhere in Between (2012), and Clair Obscur (2016). The elements used in the analysis of these films are categorized through tables, and the recurring spatial patterns are evaluated in light of this data. In assessing these films, ten phenomena listed under the section titled “Culture” are employed: Language; Sources (Customs / Traditions); People / Individual - Person; Family, Lineage, Kinship; Health and Disease; Art, Knowledge and Education; Places of Settlement; Production - Consumption; Religion - State - Governance; and lastly, Environment. The findings of the study demonstrate that the architect-director actively employs all of these cultural components in her feature-length fiction films. The most frequently used spaces in her films are residential interiors and urban settings. These elements of the built environment are often complemented by natural elements such as mountains, the sea, waves, and mist, and such spatial uses recur across many of her films. It is anticipated that this study will contribute to the existing literature on the relationship between cinema and architecture from a cultural perspective