Bisexual games and emotional sustainability in Ferzan Özpetek's queer films

Abstract

In Hamam (1997) and The Ignorant Fairies (2001), Turkish-Italian director Fernan Özpetek places a bisexual/bicultural game at the centre of the diegetic space. Three characters whose emotions are in flux become psychologically intimate in honest, non-competitive ways. In the process, each discovers a new self within. In Hamam, a successful, married male professional from Italy discovers bisexual pleasure while in Istanbul. In The Ignorant Fairies, a successful female physician in Rome becomes part of the gay/immigrant community. Players define happiness in their own terms and learn to generate the emotional environment that will sustain it. By modelling erotic behaviours that are conducive of cognitive explorations, the bi-games address global issues like religious intolerance, immigration, and cultural difference. In the context of queer theory, my article analyses the bi-tropes at the centre of Özpetek's films as ludic structures conducive of self-knowledge and self-definition, and as cooperative games in which players maximize their chances for emotional sustainability.