Cypriot Cinemas: Memory, Conflict, and Identity in the Margins of Europe

Description

Cyprus, the idyllic “island of Aphrodite,” is better known as a site of conflict and division between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, rather than for its film production. Constandinides and Papadakis work to rectify this dearth of information by discussing the ouevre of filmmakers engaging with the island’s traumatic legacies: anti-colonial struggles, post-colonial instability, interethnic conflict, external interventions and war. Starting with the cinema of the 1960s, when the island became a republic, the collection focuses on the recent decades of filmmakers exploring issues of conflict, memory, identity, nationalism, migration and gender, as well as the work of filmmakers who chose to cooperate across the ethnic divide. Cypriot Cinemas utilizes a methodology that engages all necessary perspectives for an illuminating critical discussion: historical, theoretical and comparative (Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot films in relation to regional film cultures/practices). While the volume develops a discussion based on the reading of the political in Cypriot films, it also looks at other film cultures and debates such as (s)exploitation films and transnational cinema. Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Scenarios of History, Themes, and Politics in Cypriot Cinemas Stories of history, histories in stories Literature review on Cypriot cinema(s) State film support policy Themes and issues Concluding remarks Works cited Notes 1 Archive, Evidence, Memory, Dream: Documentary Films on Cyprus Introduction Part One: The social space of documentary film Part Two: Uses of the documentary archive Conclusion Works cited Notes 2 Aesthetics, Narratives, and Politics in Greek-Cypriot Films: 1960–1974 Introduction Aesthetics, politics, and national identity Pastoral landscapes, village life, nostalgia, and purity Tourism, modernity, the city, and the beach Conclusion Works cited Notes 3 Cyprus Past, Present, and Future: The Derviş Zaim Trilogy Introduction Parallel Trips Mud Shadows and Faces Past, present, and future Works cited Notes 4 Tormenting History: The Cinemas of the Cyprus Problem Introduction Greek (Cypriot) visions: Missing persons, refugees and victimization in 1974 Visions of reconciliation Turkish-Cypriot fears: Warnings from 1963 Conclusion Works cited Notes 5 Transnational Views from the Margins of Europe: Globalization, Migration, and Post-1974 Cypriot Cinemas The global, the local, and the trashy: Hassanpoulia, Diogenis Herodotou, and their unclaimed legacy Hassanpoulia as an “alternative” form of transnational cinema Journeying “within” and “around” Cyprus: Unattainable and in-between filmic spaces Conclusion Works cited Notes 6 Women and Gender in Cypriot Films: (Re)claiming Agency amidst the Discourses of its Negation Introduction Theoretical and methodological approach Women as victims Women as agents Conclusion Works cited 7 Postscript: Borders of Categories and Categories of Borders in Cypriot Cinemas A comparative view of Cypriot literature and Cypriot cinemas The categorical ambiguities of Cypriot cinemas A working typology of Cypriot cinemas Conclusion Works cited Notes List of Contributors Index