Abstract
In this study, Derviş Zaim’s movie “Devir”, which is a pioneer in the search for a new language, nourished by the culture by making use of traditional practices, myths, legends, rituals and symbols has been discussed. The movie “Devir” deals with the “yünüm böğet” festival, which is one of the social practices and rituals celebrated in Burdur. “Yünüm böğet” is a traditional shepherd’s competition held in the form of a water crossing race when shepherds return from the highland with their flocks at the end of the summer, and it forms a part of practices such as “mating of sheep” and “charity campaign “Yünüm böğet is also expressed with denominations such as “give sheep bath/washing sheep”, “wool float”, “sheep float”, “sheep crossing the river”, “shepherd’s festival”. Derviş Zaim, in his movie “Devir”, focuses on the “yünüm böğet” festival and focuses on the “human nature relationship”, the “conflict of tradition and modernism”. Zaim considers representing ourselves authentically in cinema and using local tones as one of the basic requirements of deepening and self-knowledge by associating it with “freedom”. Derviş Zaim is defined as an “auteur” director who creates a pattern of meaning by constructing the language of cinema with the historical and social, myths and symbols in cultural memory and traditional arts. In the cinema literature, it is stated that “auteur” directors “seek for a style that multiplies memory, requires thinking and questioning, and raises awareness”. “Devir”, which he defines as a journey, a quest, an adventure film aiming to ask questions about how the spirit of resistance to alienation can be sustained, can be evaluated in the context of “applied folklore” due to its multi-layered content and being a “documentary-fiction” production. For this purpose, the film selected as a sample was watched from beginning to end, and scenes containing data about traditional practices, myths, beliefs and rituals were determined and analyzed. As a result of these analyzes, it has been revealed how Derviş Zaim benefited from traditional culture and practices in “Devir”, in order to create a unique language in today’s Turkish cinema. Eventually remembering the elements of common memory and their repetition within a discipline has great importance in the continuity of the social structure. It is possible to find traces of different layers and various social, historical, religious and mythological layers in ritualistic practices, which are one of the most important elements of social memory. In this context, the theoretical basis of the study was fictionalized on the concepts of “inner frame” and “outer frame” of Stanly Tambiah, and by associating the “yünüm böğet” festival and other mythical symbols in the film with the historical context in which it was produced; by evaluating the conceptualization of ritual symbols in the context of function, the dynamics of performing the ritual and the underlying symbolic meaning repertoires were tried to be revealed. In addition, Derviş Zaim’s interviews with the panels and interviews he participated in were examined with the method of netnographic analysis and it was evaluated in the context of applied folklore, since it is a film that is made with the “awareness” of recreating that myth, of kneading a tradition, of embedding a film around a myth. While 1000-2000 people attended the “yünüm böğet” festival held in Burdur Hasan Paşa before the movie, this number increased to around 4000-5000 after the movie is among the findings of Derviş Zaim. Therefore, the rejection of one-sided criteria claimed to be universal against the uniformization seen in art forms and efforts to reveal differences also contribute to cultural transmission and revitalization.