After 2000 conservative discourse in Turkish cinema

Conservative ideology, which started to rise after 1980 in the world and gained momentum in Turkey, is also represented in cinema with specific themes, forms, and discourses. Although conservative elements are always seen in Turkish cinema, conventional language, structure, and contents became more evident after 2000. The construction of conservatism in cinema is tried to be created by both film producers and writers who discuss conservatism. The political atmosphere is one of the most important determinants of this situation. The fact that films that do not achieve box office success in Turkey are mostly shot with the support of the Ministry of Culture creates the opportunity for the political power to intervene in the film production process. In this study, based on the regulation initiated by the Ministry of Culture in Turkey in 2004 and amended in 2013-2019, the laws/regulations/frameworks and understandings of supporting films are examined, and it is discussed whether the films supported in this framework since 2013 produce conservative discourse. This study describes qualitative research aimed at revealing the political direction that the government wants to give to cinema by focusing on the conservative discourse in the feature-length projects that the Ministry of Culture supports the most every year. In this research, in which it is claimed that conventional cinema is seen as a tool by the government in forming hegemonic consent, six people who are directors and producers in the cinema industry were interviewed. The directors and producers, who were interviewed in-depth as a data collection technique, expressed their views on the relationship between conservatism trends in cinema and Ministry support. Along with the opinions of the directors and producers, the films most supported by the Ministry of Culture were examined and the direction of the government's conservatism in cinema was revealed. Within the scope of the study, Wheat, which received the most support in 2014, among the films that the Ministry of Culture gives the most support every year, Dera for My Brother (The Doctor will come to you next) in 2017, Süveyda (Hadim), which received the most help in 2018. , Fifty-Word Letters films were selected, which ranked second in support in 2019. Examined by Fairclough's critical discourse analysis method, these four films have distinctive conservative themes and discourses that are compatible with the "domestic and national" cinematic discourse of the government. While these themes are loyalty to the past, religion, and traditional values, and reckoning with the Kemalist regime, on the other hand, Discourse of Tradition in films: "The Future is in Tradition", "Modern-Secular Tyrant State" discourse, "Religious Victim Citizen: Historical References of Political Victimization", Religious Discourse: It was determined that the discourses of "Salvation is in the divine" and "Anti-Science and Rationality" were constructed. In these films, supported by the political power and attended at the premieres and screenings by the members of the government, the practices of Political Islam, the Kemalist state, the One Party government, and the Assad regime in Syria are framed in a way that coincides with the political attitude of the political power. It is possible to say that the discourses constructed in the films that emerged as a result of the research have parallels with both Turkey's foreign and domestic policies. This is because the powers can intervene in the cinema through the support mechanism. In this context, it is necessary to prevent the condition from interfering in cinema. What needs to happen is that an autonomous institution in the field of cinema regulates this operation, and the state remains only an economic support provider. In this sense, when independence from the political structure is realized, the government's interventions will be eliminated so that ideas can be produced