Here are four new essays on a Turkish popular film. Kocek (Nejat Saydam, 1975) tells the story of Caniko (Mujde Ar) , a social drop out, who becomes a woman after a dreadful event. He (now she) begins to work as a dancer and meets her old buddy Adnan (Mahmut Hekimoglu) by chance. Adnan does not recognise Caniko and falls in love with her. The sex change is legitimised by the ‘presence’ of Mujde Ar ( the then sex symbol of Turkish cinema), who played Caniko/Raziye. One cannot imagine Mujde Ar but playing a sexy woman, so a correction ought to be made anyhow! For a more detailed plot, please see my review of the film, "Gender and Split Identity in Kocek". This comedy invites a discussion of how Turkish cinema handled gender issues in the mid 70s.
Destroyed Self and Sexual Identity: The Case of Kocek - Savas Arslan (arsavas@bilkent.edu.tr) Gender and Gaze in Kocek - Cetin Sarikartal (scetin@bilkent.edu.tr) Woman as Symptom of Man: a Study of Kocek - Ahmet Gurata (gurata@bilkent.edu.tr) Kocek: a Field of Games - Jeremy Steel (jeremy@bilkent.edu.tr)I and the authors of this section would like to thank Onder Gurkan for his assistance.
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Works on Cinema/Turkish cinema and any suggestions on this page are welcome.
Please contact: Nezih Erdogan - nezih@bilkent.edu.tr