Kocek is by no means a radical breakthrough yet deserves a closer examination, for it is one of the very rare films which take up the issue of gender so starightforward. It is important to observe that the film definitely emphasises the difference between gender and sexual identity,( that is gender/feminine is not sexual identity/female), drawing attention to the relationship between culture and identity.

Caniko's sexual ambiguity is stressed in the opening scenes but his gender is (supposed to be) masculine. He plays football, wears a fake mustache and does other things which are socially accepted as "masculine", only he fails to register it under certain circumstances. He faces the threat of "ambiguity" after he is kidnapped and forced to bellydance. Indeed, when the "villains" burst into where he is kept and attempt to rape him only to find out that he "really" is a boy, they stab him not to death but to "womanhood". Apparently he is castrated and we next see him in a hospital. Caniko is told that he had an operation and now he is a girl. He denies it frantically and cannot accept his new identity until he finds a job as a bellydancer, wears professional costumes, which, of course, are feminine and is re-named by his boss. Only then Caniko ( now Raziye) assumes her new gender role and begins to act accordingly.

Raziye falls for her old buddy, Adnan, who does not recognise him/her. Out of jealousy she pours red paint down on Adnan's fiancee, a scene which reminds me of another scene in which Caniko gets castrated, blood spilling all over the place. The castration scene is actually the beginning of a transformation and the latter is the end of it, both marked by blood (Adnan's fiancee cries "Blood! Blood!). Right at that moment having been ridiculed (the implication of menstruation) she loses all her attractiveness and sensuality; Adnan leaves her on the bed half naked and gets on his boat where Raziye hid herself beneath a piece of cloth.

The bridge serves as a spatial metaphor: it also bridges genders, hence lovers (the heterosexual couple: Adnan and Caniko Raziye). Thus the bridge is for those who need to be "corrected."

The film employs a number of stylistic devices such as split screen, staging Caniko's dream while under the operation. The split screen represents the double vision, hence double identity of Caniko, simultaneously showing Caniko and the future Raziye on the beach, the former running clumsily and gradually slowing down, the latter with swift movements. Next, the split screen gives way to a cross cutting of Caniko and Raziye and then the camera (prefers to) stays with Raziye lying on the beach, waves covering her body. I believe this scene must be connected to the myths of woman drowning in or coming from water (water giving life to somebody). There is a whole tradition of painting about it (eg Boticelli).

The film does not formulate gender as a problem but seeks to offer solutions to fix the prevailing conception about it. It does not rest content with the sexual ambiguity of Caniko, so moves forward to push him/her to a socially accepted position ("If you cannot fully be a man, then be[come] a woman!"). Deviations (ie sexual ambiguity) refer to and reinforce already established roles.

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