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Volume 22, Issue 2

Volume 22, Issue 2, 2024

  • Articles

      • The quest for meaning in a fragmented world

        https://doi.org/10.1386/fint_00257_1

        This article explores the archival cinema of Sergei Loznitsa as a critical site where history, memory and power converge. Through films such as and , Loznitsa reconfigures found footage to interrogate the ideological structures embedded in official narratives. Drawing on Derrida’s concept of archive fever and Foucault’s theory of genealogy, the analysis situates Loznitsa’s work within a broader critique of how archives shape historical consciousness. His aesthetic strategies – minimal narration, immersive sound design and deliberate pacing – transform the archive into a space of counter-memory. Rather than confirming historical truths, his films reveal the instability and multiplicity of historical meaning. They foreground the tensions between personal memory and collective ideology, urging viewers to reflect on the politics of remembrance. In doing so, Loznitsa’s cinema becomes a philosophical engagement with the visual remnants of trauma, authoritarianism and resistance. The archive, here, is not a passive container of the past but a generative force shaping the ethical and political dimensions of the present.

    • Three cases of women vs. urban spaces from the new era of women’s representation in Iranian cinema

      https://doi.org/10.1386/fint_00258_1

      Iranian cinema underwent a significant transformation in the late 1990s concerning the presence and primacy of women and their issues in films. However, it would be an oversimplification to label these films as uniform in their concerns. This study selects three films – (2000), (2004) and (2016) – as case studies, focusing on the plight, constraints and responses of Iranian women in the masculine spaces of Tehran. , with a defeatist attitude, portrays Iranian women as passive victims trapped in a web of gender-based societal oppression. tells the story of a young woman resisting constraints and societal judgements in her pursuit of independence but fails to validate the legitimacy of her actions. features a strong, independent female protagonist who successfully challenges patriarchal norms and conventions. In doing so, she becomes a paranoid outcast, treated by society as a criminal. This study emphasizes the interrelations among these three films and their differences, particularly in the films’ treatment of women’s situations and their respective stances. The article aims to provide a deeper perspective on the cinematic representations of the relationship between Iranian women and urban spaces.

    • All in good fun? Hollywood, transnational media and Turkish remakes of the 1970s

      https://doi.org/10.1386/fint_00259_1

      Utilizing scholarship on transnational film, cultural exchange and Turkish film history, this article situates Turkish cinema’s Yeşilçam era of high genre cinema (1950s–80s) as both inventive and resistive to hegemonic western film representation. While often discussed pejoratively, Kristin Thompson’s theory of cinematic excess is applied to discuss how these films achieve a level of ingenuity beyond orientalist notions of quality and good taste. This article also examines how western aid to Turkey in the post-war era and the establishment of national governing film bodies in the early 1950s contributed to a robust, if financially limited, mode of film production specifically designed for Turkish audiences. Two exploitation films of this era, (1974) and (1982), will be closely examined to discuss the subversive and culturally specific strategies of the Yeşilçam era despite, or even because of, its perceived economic and aesthetic limitations.

  • Review

      • Beyond Borders 9th Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival, Kastellorizo, Greece, 25 August–1 September 2024

        https://doi.org/10.1386/fint_00260_7

        Beyond Borders Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival takes place on a remote Greek island, which lies on the cusp of Turkey in the easternmost point of the Aegean Sea. Unique in its isolated location, the festival is delivered with a principle of quality over quantity, creating a micro-community for film industry connections and programmes. The festival provides a platform for documentary filmmakers across all career stages to screen their work and partake in cross-cultural dialogues. The Ninth Edition of the festival (August–September 2024) draws on themes of displacement and resilience, showcasing a diverse range of films, many of which spotlight stories of marginalized groups. Helmed by the vision of the festival’s charismatic and altruistic director Irini Sarioglou, the programme is unique in its cultivation of cross-cultural industry connections, with a parallel mission to contribute to Kastellorizo’s economic and cultural development. This review highlights the ongoing ambitions of the festival, emphasized through evolving programming initiatives and the thematic focus of the 2024 iteration, as well as the apparent incongruence with some of the festival’s practices. Considering director Christos Adrianopoulos’s critique of the organization, which recognized a contradiction between the festival’s overarching values and avoidance of public statements regarding Israel’s war on Gaza, this review considers the responsibility of film festivals as influential and public-facing cultural bodies.

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