The relationship of Derviş Zaim films with traditional arts

Tradition is a phenomenon that is unique to societies and includes everything material and spiritual that they pass on to future generations. Artworks that reflect the cultural characteristics of the society they came from also play an important role in transferring this cultural structure and traditions from generation to generation. In this sense, traditional Turkish arts are a source of reference for today, as they have an informative and transmitting feature about the way of life, beliefs, and intellectual structures of Turkish society. In order for the work of art to create a meaning or for the artist to produce a work, knowing or mastering only the relevant branch of art can limit the artist. In addition, his deep knowledge of the culture and traditions of the society he lives in can be shown as a feature that enriches the artist's perspective in the creation process. In this context, it can be said that Derviş Zaim aimed to create an original cinema language based on the traditions of the society he lived in while creating his films. Zaim tries to establish a link between the forms of traditional arts and cinema by making use of the tools and possibilities of cinematography. The aim of this study is to examine how and in what way the philosophical and formal features of miniature, calligraphy, and shadow play, which are traditional arts, are utilized in Derviş Zaim's films of "Cenneti Beklerken (2006)", "Nokta (2008)" and "Gölgeler ve Suretler (2010)" in the process of creating a unique language in Turkish cinema. Accordingly, literature reviews on miniature, calligraphy and shadow plays were consulted, the development process of cinema in Turkey was mentioned, cinema movements in Turkish cinema were examined, and the effect of cinematography in the process of cinema's becoming an art was emphasized. In this context, the connection Derviş Zaim established between traditional arts by using camera, editing, light and color, the tools of cinemtography, in three films selected as samples, namely "Cenneti Beklerken", "Nokta" and "Gölgeler ve Suretler" was examined by using descriptive content analysis method.