Presentation of homosexualizm in Turkish cinema in the male homosexuality themed films

Homosexuality had been a subject for cinema since cinema's emergence. Form of presentation of homosexuality and its designation had been existed as a point of contention and controversy from the inception of cinema. This existence endeavors maintaining itself in the Turkish cinema which inadequately appreciates homosexuality through its history between East-West axes. This study is conducted to illuminate the perception of homosexuality in the Turkish cinema, and to shed light upon treatment of the concept of male homosexuality and private spheres of homosexual individuals in cinema productions. Moreover, history of homosexuality in Turkey and the reflections of it on the cinema have been scrutinized. With this design, presentation of homosexuality and the attitude of Turkish cinema towards male homosexuality have been analyzed through films that include a main male homosexual character and shot between 1989-2011. This study rests on the fulcrum of analysis of Turkish cinema's attitude towards male homosexuality through forms of presentations of male characters in the films comprise male homosexuality as the main theme. Thus, the study searches answers on the presentation of male homosexuals in Turkish cinema, its demeanour towards them, and whether there has been changes on those problems throughout the time or not. The sample films those are examined through this research showed us that Turkish cinema had a homophobic attitude till the ends of the 80's. However, this attitude get less strict by the 90's and the homosexual men characters were represented usually in a negative manner as stereotypes (such as funny, clumsy, had an early-life trauma etc.) those didn't have profundity. Also these films showed that by the middle of the 90's some new films whose main themes were men-homosexuality were produced and step-by-step this issue was accepted by the society. The films, Acılar Paylaşılmaz (1989), Dönersen Islık Çal (1992), Lola ve Bilidikid (1999), Teslimiyet (2010), and Zenne (2011) have been throughly analyzed in this study. Qualitative method is followed in accord with discourse analysis and semiotic analysis in the analysis process of the research. Key Words: Turkish Cinema, Homosexual Male Characters, Presentation