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UZAK
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Turkish cinema has been producing a small number of films (15-25 films per year) that are diverse in style. A comedy like Gora (2004), by Omer Faruk Sorak, has attracted an audience of four million. However, Turkish audiences have not taken much notice of Ceylan's films. While Distant sold 150,000 tickets in France, in Turkey the number was around 60,000. The narrative in Distant focuses on people who are on the edge of a precipice, as they try to survive in a metropolis where violence is part of daily life; the characters experience melancholy and grief, caused by this invisible violence. Yusuf leaves his small town to find a job on the ocean liners that dock at Istanbul. He stays with his photographer cousin, Mahmut. Mahmut is not lying when he tells Yusuf, who trusts him, that everywhere is the same. 'Distant' is not only the title of the film; it refers to a place that is either physically or psychologically far away, whether in Turkey or elsewhere. Istanbul, with over ten million people, is an important geographic space between East and West, and conducive to an atmosphere of solitude and loneliness. The film foregrounds abstract subjects such as alienation and lack of communication, as well as various sociological problems, amongst which are the issues of migrant Anatolian workers and rising unemployment. Ceylan employs a 'mouse' motif to express the loneliness of the two male characters. In the beginning of the film, Mahmut glues a sticky band to the kitchen threshold, to trap the mouse. In the middle, he accidentally sets his foot on the band and finally, in a midnight scene, the mouse is stuck on the band. The two men, the guest (Yusuf) and the host (Mahmut), who are actually trapped inside, hear the squeals of the mouse and find the animal caught in the trap. We could read the film as an allegorical story of the mice in Aesop's fable: the city mouse (represented by Mahmut) and the country mouse (represented by Yusuf). In the fable, the city mouse visits his cousin, who lives in the country, while in the film the countryman goes to the city where his cousin lives. As they eat the food, the city mouse asks: 'How can you eat such bad food?' These words sound like Mahmut's remarks about Yusuf s cheap cigarettes: 'How can you smoke that shit'? The city mouse who does not like country food invites his cousin to the city to show how he should live and they go to the house of the city mouse and eat delicious food, which is left from a feast. Suddenly, the dogs of the house bark and the mice run away. Finally, the country mouse prefers to eat bad food at peace than eat good food in fear. In fact, Yusuf acts the same way at the end of the film: he prefers to stay unemployed in his small town than live in Istanbul to be accused of stealing. The relationship between the two cousins is important within the narrative, but the real subject of the film is Mahmut, who has lost his ideals in the city. Yusuf acts as an antagonist, present to help us understand Mahmut. Mahmut, who used to live in Yusuf's small town, works as an art photographer for a tile company. He has alienated himself from his family, his work and even his own self, which has culminated in a kind of depression or angst. He is unhappy in his work and his relationships, because once he longed to be a director like Tarkovsky, but now he is caught in the routine of daily life. Although Ceylan was viewed as the twin soul - cinematically - of Abbas Kiarostami with his first two features, Kasaba (The Small Town, 1997) and Mayis Sikmtisi (Clouds of May, 1999), with Distant he has been compared to Antonioni and Tarkovsky. He even refers to Tarkovsky in the film. In a humorous scene, Mahmut watches Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979) in the hope that Yusuf would be bored and leave. After dozing in his chair for a while, Yusuf asks permission to go to bed. As soon as he does, Mahmut watches a porn film. Mahmut is divorced from Nazan (played by Zuhal Gencer, the only professional actress in the film) and has sexual intercourse with a married woman. He is reminiscent of Vittoria (Monica Vitti) in Antonioni's Lkdisse (Eclipse, 1962) who breaks up with the man she loves and begins an affair with another man who lives in a world different from hers. There is a similarity in the melancholy, annoyance and solitude experienced by the two alienated characters. The relationship between Mahmut and Nazan is complicated. When Mahmut speaks on the phone with Nazan, he wants to say something, but finds he cannot. He says 'Well...' three times and hesitates. The only music that is heard throughout the film, a piece by Mozart, ties Mahmut and Nazan. Once we slightly hear it during their conversation in a pub. In the scenes after Nazaris departure, when Mahmut thinks of her, we hear this grievous soft music suggesting the rekindling of emotions. Mahmut experiences a sense of guilt. In a scene with Nazan, we see him feeling uncomfortable with the memory of her abortion, which he regards as his fault. Although she wants to have a baby in her new marriage, she cannot, perhaps as a result of her abortion. Throughout the rest of the film, the soundtrack features no more than the natural sounds of city life - the passing trains and ships, the television, the birds, the rustling leaves, the whistling wind, the barking dogs or simply the sound of water. Distant not only foregrounds unsuccessful relationships in the large metropolis, it also focuses on unsuccessful intellectuals who have lost their sense of values. Mahmut usually criticises everything. According to him, out of the fifty television channels, there is not even one worth watching. And yet he always sits in front of the TV. He tries to exist alone, convincing himself that to live, he does not need anyone. He is as lifeless as the characters in Beckett's Waiting for Godot. He criticises, but he lacks motivation to change things. In a sequence when Yusuf and Mahmut take a trip together to take photographs, Mahmut s eye catches an exceptional mise-en-scene and for a moment he thinks about photographing it as he would do in the past, but he does not have enough enthusiasm. Yusuf, whose only concern is to do his job as an assistant, tries to encourage him to stop the car but Mahmut uses the opportunity to hurt Yusuf by rejecting his help. In another scene, during a conversation with friends, he is reminded of how they used to try to climb mountains to take photographs and is accused of having changed. Mahmut says: 'Photography is finished.' His hopes and dreams have gone. Likewise, Yusuf s hopes and dreams are about to end. Gradually, Yusuf begins to resemble Mahmut as he was in the past. He will also lose his dreams like Mahmut. This is best illustrated in a scene in which the two men raise their voices at each other. Mahmut stays over at his sister's to look after his mother, who is hospitalised. When he returns, he notices that Yusuf has littered his house. In that evening scene, Yusuf stands between the doorframe, with a toy in his hand, like a child. Yusufs image, seen through the mirror behind Mahmut, is somewhat blurred and outside the frame of his cousin, who stands on the left and in front of the frame. The unclear image on the right, from a distance, looks like Mahmut in his youth; the Mahmut he gave up. The distance between Mahmut and the unclear image in the mirror signifies the distance between him and his ideals, his past and his youth, which is embodied by Yusuf. This distance between Mahmut and Yusuf widens. At each opportunity, Mahmut literally closes the doors that separate him from Yusuf, or at least tries to. When Yusuf smokes a cigarette on the balcony, Mahmut stays on the other side of the door, slowly closing it. Mahmut has strict rules: he wants Yusuf to use the small toilet and he forbids him to smoke anywhere indoors except the kitchen, finally prohibiting him from smoking even there. As the odour of his shoes and cheap cigarettes annoy him, he constantly reminds Yusuf of the rules of his house. It is significant that it snows the day after the arrival of Yusuf. The cold atmosphere implies the solitude of the two relatives and prepares a basis for the distance between them. Snowy, gloomy winter and the missing spirit of the characters complement each other. Coldness and rudeness extend everywhere from the dialogue to the film's atmosphere and mise-en-scene. For instance, Mahmut forgets the day Yusuf is coming to Istanbul, so Yusuf has to wait for him in the lobby of the building until the evening. From beginning to end, Mahmut treats Yusuf poorly, maintaining his distance from him. Mahmut asks him repeatedly: 'How many days before you find a job?', 'What happened with the ship job?', 'When will you know for sure?' and 'So what are your plans?' His questions suggest that he wants his guest to leave as quickly as possible. Hospitality is generally shown as a basic part of Turkish culture in many popular narratives and is one of the most important characteristics of national identity, but Mahmut is unusual - he does not like his guest. When his friend calls him for a get-together, Mahmut says: Til come. The thing is, I'm coming with someone. No. He is someone from a distant place.' Disenchanted as he is, Mahmut refuses to be of any help to Yusuf. He has becomes 'distant' to his roots and alienated from most other things, though he does not notice it. As he keeps himself away and keeps everybody away from himself, he eradicates his origin and identity, instead hiding himself. As he selfishly keeps himself at a distance, even from his past, he places himself into nothingness. During their first dialogue, Mahmut asks Yusuf several questions about his plans. In this scene, Ceylan's frame squeezes them into the kitchen door. The edges of the doors have a compressive effect on the characters. Mahmut feels uncomfortable with Yusuf's existence in his home. Yusuf, who stands behind Mahmut s armchair, is redundant in the room when Mahmut watches television. Mahmut waits for a while, then turns round and gazes at him, until he is forced to leave. A number of metaphors suggest the besiegement of the characters. The fish out of water, the stuck mouse and the capsized ship indicate the circumstances of Yusuf, Mahmut, or sometimes both. When Mahmut accuses Yusuf of stealing the silver pocket-watch, in spite of his cousins innocence, he besieges Yusuf, who is caught in a trap, like the mouse. The two events, trapping the mouse and accusing Yusuf, occur on the same day. The next morning, Yusuf leaves the house after Mahmut drives to the airport to secretly see Nazan for the last time, as she leaves for Canada with her new husband. Distant has more intense conflicts than the other films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Each of his stories are tightly interwoven. It is the third film of a trilogy, which could be viewed as one long film. Therefore, to understand Distant, we should look to the other two parts for similarities. He describes in detail the tranquil life in the village in The Small Town and focuses on the desire to leave the small town in Clouds of May. Distant completes this physical, psychological and emotional journey, as the man travels from the small town to the big city, only to face unemployment, resentment and solitude. The characters are almost the same in each film. In The Small Town and Clouds of May, Ceylan's real cousin, Mehmet Emin Toprak, as Saffet, wants to go far away. In Clouds of May, the film director Muzaffer (Muzaffer Ozdemir, Ceylan's architect friend) promises Saffet, his cousin, to find a job in Istanbul. Saffet trusts his cousin and gives up his factory job in the small town, but Muzaffer does not keep his word. Yusuf (Toprak) in Distant once more trusts his cousin Mahmut, now a photographer (Ozdemir) and comes to Istanbul with the hope of working on the ocean liners. The films of Ceylan are personal and, to a degree, autobiographical. Just like the characters in his first two feature films, he had lived in a small town during his childhood. In Distant, the apartment and the car of the main character (Mahmut) belong to Ceylan. A poster ofKoza (Cocoon, 1995), Ceylan's short film, hangs on the wall of Mahmut's house. And the director is also a photographer, like Mahmut. Ceylan has stressed the autobiographical aspect of his film during almost every interview given on the film's release. He not only narrates a story of solitude and alienation in Turkey, but also holds a mirror to himself. Therefore, this film can be interpreted as the auto-analysis of the director to solve the conflicts and contradictions in his life. The film thus juxtaposes the binaries of ideals and reality, country and city, traditional and modern, tolerance and intolerance. The ideals of Yusuf, who bears all the purity of traditional life, are still alive. However, Mahmut loses his ideals and inspiration while living the cruel modern life of the big city. In addition, the way the characters use space displays sharp contrasts. To drink tea, Yusuf goes to a traditional coffeehouse, where ordinary men play cards and chat with each other. But Mahmut goes to a pub at night and drinks beer alone. Turkish coffeehouses are cheaper than bars, of course, and the type of music played in these two places is very different. It is meaningful that when Yusuf enters the coffeehouse, he can sit at the table of a stranger and warmly begin to chat. But Mahmut cannot communicate with the other people in the pub. The difference between them in the film is made obvious in the locations in which they are shot. Yusuf is often filmed outdoors, whereas Mahmut mostly stays indoors. Yusuf, who conies from a small town, is closer to nature than Mahmut. Meanwhile, Mahmut always sits in his big comfortable armchair at home. Yusuf sits there only when Mahmut goes out. They react differently in their relations with their mothers. Mahmut cannot call his mother, and does not want to speak to her, whereas the first sentence in this film belongs to Mahmut's mother on the answering machine: 'This is mom. I called earlier, but you were out.' Mahmut also listens to his mothers words, but does not pick up the phone to answer her. In a later scene, Mahmut's sister sounds angry on the answering machine because of Mahmut's indifference to their mother's illness. She leaves a message: 'You're so irresponsible! Call me, immediately.' By contrast, Yusuf is always worried about his mother's health. The two male characters exhibit several opposing traits, but they have one common attitude: their relationships with women exhibit not only a lack of communication but also a certain crisis of masculinity, and no matter how much distance Mahmut puts between Yusuf and himself, they look like the two faces of the same man. The anti-heroes of the film show their weakness to each other and us. Their weakness and anxiety can be read from their faces and behaviour. For example, Yusuf returns as soon as Mahmut's mistress has left and Mahmut begins to scold him because the house is dirty. In fact, he is angry because he has had a bad night with his mistress and they broke up. Both men conceal their emotions in their relations with women. They treat their problems this way because they are hopeless, not powerful. Mahmut stands silently near women and cannot explain his emotions. Yusuf does not know how to act or what to do. He harasses a young girl on the bus by touching her leg. When Mahmut answers his friend's invitation, he asks: 'Are any girls coming?' On the one hand, they want to communicate with women, but on the other, they do not know how to. The crisis of masculinity is everywhere. There is the absence of a father. Both Mahmut and Yusuf have a mother whom we see or hear, but where are their fathers? We only know Yusuf s father is unemployed, so he has no power. We do not know where Mahmut's father is. Perhaps he is dead. In this sense, is Mahmut s camera a symbol of power (like a phallus)? If it is so, Mahmut with his machine (and his armchair...) has power over Yusuf, but this actually suggests the weakness of Mahmut. His camera has not given pleasure to himself yet. He wants to seem powerful but in fact he is not so. Although he is an intellectual and he has a job, a house, a car and friends, unlike Yusuf, he is still unhappy; he has lost his ideals, his dreams and his soul. He cannot express his emotions to women; he is powerless, fragile. In a certain scene he admits that he has many problems himself and he does not want to have to deal with Yusuf. Their weak masculinities are bound together in two shots. The two men are in different places, but they watch beautiful women, on a fashion channel, at the same time, and these images are juxtaposed. They always gaze at all women. A real woman/man relationship is lacking because the male gaze is everywhere. Laura Mulvey has claimed that the male gaze (of a director, cameraman and a hero - in other words, a spectator who identifies with the male character in the film) on the passive and powerless woman is active and powerful in the mainstream Hollywood film. However, Yusuf's gaze is timid and Mahmut's implies regret and guilt. Employing psychoanalysis, Mulvey shows that the woman has two functions in the patriarchal unconscious. She is a symbol of castration threat for men in the films because she lacks a penis, and she symbolically bears her child. Men have two types of solutions to this castration anxiety: firstly, devaluation or punishment of the woman, or saving her; secondly, making a sexual object of her, or fetishising her. But neither Mahmut nor Yusuf use these defence mechanisms. Moreover, Yusuf is devalued because he has limited opportunities and he is unemployed. Mahmut may have been punished because he loses his ex-wife and his mistress, and moves away from his ideals, youth, relatives, friends and job. And we could say that the longest takes support the fetishistic images of Mahmut's loneliness. Mahmut's watching a pornographic film is very significant in this context. Feminists argue that pornography represents violence for women, as well as causing violence against women. As Roger Horrocks points out, porn not only shows the female body, it also shows male loneliness and inadequacy. And pornography does not lead to contact with women, sexual or otherwise. The crisis of masculinity becomes clearly visible in this scene, which implies Mahmut s loneliness and inadequacy. Horrocks argues that the male is both an object' of oppression under patriarchal capitalism and a 'subject' over the female. Some writers claim that pornography has a negative impact on men's sexuality and male sexuality is alienated under patriarchy. It is possible to understand Mahmut in this frame. As a man, he has experienced a bad marriage and he does not have a successful relationship with another woman, and as an artist, he has to work for a big commercial company for a living. Some writers regard men's use of pornographic fantasy as a compensation for their powerlessness in the real world. In contrast, Harry Brod assumes pornography is both an expression of men's public power (in other words, the powerful rapist using pornography to consummate his sexual violence) and an expression of their lack of personal power (the shy recluse using pornography to consummate his masturbatory fantasies). It is obvious that We see Mahmut watching a porn film and Yusuf worrying about his mother at the same moment. The contradictions and differences between these two men are very sharp, but it should be remembered that when Yusuf phones his mother to learn about her health, he does not ask Mahmut's permission. The two men perform these secret acts simultaneously. Moreover, they both secretly listen to each other when one of them is on the phone. Hence they resemble each other. As was discussed earlier, despite various opposite characteristics between the two men, Yusuf represents Mahmut's youth. Consequently, one (Mahmut) is the other (Yusuf). They are only one man who is represented by two different persons in the film. One of them desires to leave his ideals and youth; to distance himself from his dreams and hopes. The other desires to go abroad and distance himself from his provincial troubles; from unemployment and limited opportunities. The only scene in the film where Mahmut metaphorically opens his door for Yusuf is in the final sequence. On a bench at the seaside, Mahmut smokes one of Yusufs cigarettes, which he had scorned before: they once stayed in a hotel during their trip and Yusuf offered a cigarette to Mahmut: 'Have one of these sailor cigarettes?' Mahmut replied, 'Fuck off!' Yusuf was offended at his remarks and went to sleep. Finally, Mahmut smokes the cigarette that he rejected at first. He may be beginning to understand Yusuf, which creates a sense of sympathy, but unfortunately, Yusuf is now distant from him. With this final sequence, Mahmut will be reconciled with his past. When he met Yusuf, he remembered his youth and the ideals he wanted to forget. That is why he was angry and nervous. However, at the end of the film, while smoking one of Yusuf s cheap cigarettes, he confronts himself. The last shot in the film implies the beginning of a change in him.
REFERENCES: -Brod, Harry (1990) 'Pornography and the Alienation of Male Sexuality', in Jeff Hearn and David Morgan (eds) Men, Masculinities & Social Theory. London: Unwin Hyman, 124-39. -Horrocks,Roger(1995)MaleMyths&Icons:MasculinityinPopularCulture.London:Macmillan. Mulvey, Laura (1975) 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' Screen, 16, 3,6-18.
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