Yeşim Ustaoğlu has been a major figure in Turkish cinema since the mid-1990s. Obscure emotional states, indecisive characters, and indeterminate spaces of identity define her cinematic milieu. Ustaoğlu started her career with The Trace, a psychological thriller with tints of film noir, then changed tracks to follow a more politically engaged path that questions notions of identity in different contexts. Her breakthrough feature, Journey to the Sun, filters its story through the eyes of two young men in absolute destitution, to explore the effects of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict on the lives of ordinary people. Ustaoğlu’s unique gift of finding the politically sensitive core in personal stories shines through all of her films. Waiting for the Clouds portrays an elderly Greek woman in the Black Sea region who has been forced to erase her past in order to fit in with society. Pandora’s Box, a layered family drama, focuses on a woman with Alzheimer’s disease. In this layered family drama, the matriarch of a family loses touch with the past, such that every member of the family gets disconnected in a giant, disorienting city. The latest two titles from Ustaoğlu center around young women protagonists from various backgrounds. Ustaoğlu observes the emotional states that women in Turkey go through regardless of their class and safety networks (or lack thereof). As a trailblazer in contemporary Turkish cinema, Ustaoğlu continues to illuminate the interior lives of women who are in a transitional period of redefining themselves. Her lucid and evocative images prove that this very act of rethinking identity is an essentially political one.

Yeşim Ustaoğlu has been a major figure in Turkish cinema since the mid-1990s. Obscure emotional states, indecisive characters, and indeterminate spaces of identity define her cinematic milieu. Ustaoğlu started her career with The Trace, a psychological thriller with tints of film noir, then changed tracks to follow a more politically engaged path that questions notions of identity in different contexts. Her breakthrough feature, Journey to the Sun, filters its story through the eyes of two young men in absolute destitution, to explore the effects of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict on the lives of ordinary people. Ustaoğlu&#8217;s unique gift of finding the politically sensitive core in personal stories shines through all of her films. Waiting for the Clouds portrays an elderly Greek woman in the Black Sea region who has been forced to erase her past in order to fit in with society. Pandora’s Box, a layered family drama, focuses on a woman with Alzheimer&#8217;s disease. In this layered family drama, the matriarch of a family loses touch with the past, such that every member of the family gets disconnected in a giant, disorienting city. The latest two titles from Ustaoğlu center around young women protagonists from various backgrounds. Ustaoğlu observes the emotional states that women in Turkey go through regardless of their class and safety networks (or lack thereof). As a trailblazer in contemporary Turkish cinema, Ustaoğlu continues to illuminate the interior lives of women who are in a transitional period of redefining themselves. Her lucid and evocative images prove that this very act of rethinking identity is an essentially political one.

In Limbo: A Yeşim Ustaoğlu Retrospective

IN LIMBO: A YEŞIM USTAOĞLU RETROSPECTIVE

Yeşim Ustaoğlu has been a major figure in Turkish cinema since the mid-1990s. Obscure emotional states and indeterminate spaces of identity define her cinematic milieu. The director’s  lucid and evocative images illuminate the interior lives of women in contemporary Turkey.

Yeşim Ustaoğlu has been a major figure in Turkish cinema since the mid-1990s. Obscure emotional states and indeterminate spaces of identity define her cinematic milieu. The director&#8217;s lucid and evocative images illuminate the interior lives of women in contemporary Turkey.