Mentality and the state in Turkish cinema after 1990

This study aims to explore the appearance of the government in Turkish cinema after 1990's, focusing on how the fundamental elements of the government of The Republic of Turkey as a nation state is represented and criticized in the films while analyzing the transformation within the governmental mentality. The first chapter consists of a thorough survey of the previous scholarly studies which analyze mentality, the transformation within mentality and how this transformation affects the idea of a government and where the Turkish governmental mentality stands. With the same method, the study is carried on by analyzing how the government makes an appearance in Turkish cinema from its very beginnnig to 1990's. While the first two chapters form the theoretical background of the study, the third chapter focuses on the representations of the fundamental elements of the government of the Republic of Turkey as a nation state in Turkish films produced after 1990. A film is selected out for each of the concepts of secularity, national identity, sole language, country/homeland/borders, civil and military bureaucracy as elements of a modern/nation state. These films are analyzed through semiotics. Keywords: Mentality, Government, Modern Government, Turkish Cinema, (Takva) Taqwa, Let the Lights On (Işıklar Sönmesin), On the Way to School (İki Dil Bir Bavul), Propaganda, Paper (Kağıt), The International (Beynelmilel)