Narrative structure in Zeki Demirkubuz's films

The main purpose of this study is to examine narrative structures of the films directed by Zeki Demirkubuz, who is one of the prominent directors of the recent period Turkish cinema. Film narratives possess a holistic structure based on the film genre and director's film style. In this context, assuming that a certain genre or director's narrative style has various unchanging theme, motif and elements, our study argues that Demirkubuz films include various unchanging structural elements. Narrative analysis of Demirkubuz films are made through the binary oppositions method developed by the French philosopher Claude Levi-Strauss under the categories of time, space and characters, which are elements of cinematic narratives. The scope of this study covers the nine movies of the director, directed between the periods 1994-2015. Through this study it has been identified that films possess common structural motifs forming a holistic study unique to the director in terms of time, space and character. The disposition of time and characters' time perception in films display several similarities. Spaces have dark atmosphere in accordance with the 'malicious' depicted in Demirkubuz's films. Closed and covered space was used more often than the natural space, and space has a structure that enables communication between the 'other' and strangers. As spaces out of the category; spaces such as apartments, hotels, roads and car highlight the concepts of journey, culpability and quest. Characters are often nihilistic; living within the borders of certain social values, alienated to their self and society, and are in quest independent of the values and crime-prone. The life of the modern urban people is narrated along linear time. In this context, narratives are oriented more than to substitute a catharsis, purification and purgation of emotions of the audience, the narration is designed to force the audience to think and disturb. Keywords: Zeki Demirkubuz, Turkish Cinema, Narrative Analysis, Binary Oppositions, Narrative Structure