Fantasy tendencies in Turkish independent cinema after 2000

It is seen how fantasy, as a genre that increased its popularity and its sphere of influence along with the year 2000, affected the language and the narration of many forms of art from literature to cinema. Fantasy notion, starting with commercial B-class Yeşilçam films in Turkey, and showing its first original references in the post-80's period, further finds its place in mainstream cinema after 2000s. However, films produced during these three periods are far from creating a tendency. In this thesis, fantasy elements in Turkish Independent Cinema of 2000s are studied through films of auteur directors, who created their own cinematic language, and the fantasy tendency developed in Turkish Cinema is identified. Concordantly, in this thesis the following films of auteur directors, who predominantly use fantasy elements, are chosen as samples and are analyzed: Kosmos (Reha Erdem/2010), Sen Aydınlatırsın Geceyi (Onur Ünlü/2013), Abluka (Emin Alper/2015), Sarmaşık (Tolga Karaçelik/2015), Buğday (Semih Kaplanoğlu/2017), Sofra Sırları (Ümit Ünal/2017) and Yol Kenarı (Tayfun Pirselimoğlu/2018). In order to expose fantastic tendencies created by auteur directors, Iconological Method of analysis of visual art works, developed by Erwin Panofsky, is practiced in film analyses. With this method fantasy elements in the films are identified, the ways of presence of these elements in cinematic narration are analyzed, and the subtexts, created with the use of a fantastic narration language in the narratives, are construed. This work is of importance by its exposure of this newly developed language in Turkish Independent Cinema. In conclusion, in this thesis it is established that in Turkish Independent Cinema after 2000 films of auteur directors frequently include fantasy elements and that this is turning into a tendency in Turkish Independent Cinema.