REPRESENTATIONS OF “HACI BEKTAŞ VELI” IN TURKISH CINEMA

Abstract

Hacı Bektaş Veli is one of the most important names of Turkish Islam. Various sources and groups paint different and completely opposite Hacı Bektaş portraits. While some describe Hacı Bektaş as a Sunni mystic, others consider him a representative of heterodox Islam. In addition, there are those who turn Hacı Bektaş into a purely political figure and show him as a symbol of resistance that stands by the working people against injustices. It is possible to come across cultural references and representations of this belief in cinema as a mass art. In this direction, the study aims to reveal the reflections of Hacı Bektaş representations, which have a great importance in the beliefs and values of Turkish society, but have discussions between his real and hisopic personality, on the cinema. Through the descriptive analysis and discourse analysis included in the qualitative research methodology, how a tradition reflected in Turkish cinema is defined and how it is interpreted has been evaluated through sample films. In the applied descriptive analysis, instead of interviews, the thematic framework in the films was set up and how it was evaluated, while it was tried to reveal how filmmakers and directors with different ideas reflect these values in the social structure they are in and their views on Hacı Bektaş Veli. Only one Hacı Bektaş Veli movie has been shot since its inception. This film is Hacı Bektaş’ı Veli (Those who Turkified Anatolia), which was shot by T. Fikret Uçar in 1967 and tried to convey sections from the lives of religious figures called “hazli films” within the aesthetics of Yeşilçam. In addition to the movie Hacı Bektaş Veli, the characters of Hacı Bektaş Veli are also encountered in the movies where Yunus Emre's life story is told. In the study, it has been determined that the representations of Hacı Bektaş examined in Turkish cinema vary in relation to the ideological thoughts and beliefs of the directors or screenwriters. Keywords: Cinema, Turkish Cinema, Hacı Bektaş Veli, Yunus Emre, Descriptive Analysis.