This article applies Jungian analysis to the film Noah Land (2019), director and screenwriter Cenk Ertürk’s first movie. Ertürk is part of a wave of independent filmmakers in Turkey who employ psychoanalytic elements in their films. Although examples of the use of such elements in a film’s plot, dialogue, and characters in Turkey date back to the work of Metin Erksan in the early 1960s, it has been only in the past two or three decades that filmmakers have begun to conscientiously use such elements and symbolism to draw their audiences in and make them part of their films. In an interview about his film, Ertürk says that he worked for a long time in various positions at Derviş Zaim Films, and that it was there that he started writing the screenplay for Noah Land, after encountering a fallen tree on a visit to his father’s village. Noah Land is a story about a father and son, and I analyze it through Jungian archetypical symbolism, applying psychoanalytical readings to the film’s plot patterning, space, characters, and dialogue. Noah Land is about a son’s journey to fulfill his dying father’s wish to be buried under a tree the father planted years ago. The relationship between the two characters is fraught, as the father, İbrahim, abandoned Ömer and his mother years earlier. When he tells Ömer of his desire to be buried under the tree, the two set off for the father’s old village. When they arrive, they learn that the tree İbrahim planted has become a popular wishing tree that the locals call the Noah Tree, and that it is now owned, along with the hill upon which it sits, by a man named Cevdet. Ömer files a lawsuit against Cevdet and his sons, who have turned the tree into a business, even as he works to overcome marital problems with his pregnant wife, Elif. The village imam, Ahmet, is the only person who supports the father and son in their struggles. The film is told as a hero’s journey in which Ömer, through the help of his mentor (Ahmet), fights against evil (Cevdet) and struggles with love (Elif), and these archetypes are the basis upon which I analyze the film. The journey Ömer sets out on with his father is actually a journey to his inner world, as in many other journey stories. This process corresponds to the journey archetype, characterized by a departing or setting out, adolescence, and return. Ömer initially does not want to leave his comfort zone and set out on a journey into oblivion. Ahmet acts a mentor in Ömer’s journey. Ömer’s fight begins on the hill with the Noah Tree against Cevdet and the villagers, and this fight initiates a process of change from which there is no return. Ömer accepts the change, which represents his adolescence period. Cevdet is the dark side of the society, and that is why Ömer’s triumph is important.
Primary Language | Turkish |
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Subjects | Communication and Media Studies |
Journal Section | Features |
Authors | |
Publication Date | October 12, 2022 |
Published in Issue | Year 2022 |
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