Istanbul Gelisim University (IGU) Faculty of Fine Arts (FAF) Radio, Television, and Cinema Department Res. Asst. Eda Çekemci made a paper presentation on the second day of the International Cinema and Philosophy Symposium, which was held for the fourth time this year in Ankara by SineFilozofi Magazine and lasted for three days.
In addition to academic presentations, panels and film screenings on various topics were also held at the symposium. The symposium, which progressed with the participation of many academics conducting current research from both domestically and abroad, and with a large audience, was simultaneously published online.
Res. Asst. Eda Çekemci, in her statement titled "The Infestation of an Uncanny Ghost: The Mongoose", discussed Jacques Derrida's haunting and ghost theories and Sigmund Freud's unheimlich article on the sense of uncanny, and discussed the 2020 film Poppy, directed by Orçun Benli. The film focuses on the relationship between ex-police Ayhan, who started to live in a forest house far from the city, with Karadayı, whom he met in the forest, and deals with Ayhan's confrontation with his past.
In her presentation, Res. Asst. Eda Çekemci emphasized that Jacques Derrida pointed out the importance of the relationship that people establish with others in the process of accepting their selves, and argued that not only the relationship that a person establishes with a foreigner/another other but also the relationships he establishes with his familiar/internal others are decisive. He focused on the theory of haunting and the relationship between the sense of the uncanny and the familiar and stated that ghosts haunt people until they make themselves accepted, and meanwhile they create an uncanny atmosphere. He found out with which formal preferences the atmosphere of uncanny is provided in the film. He interpreted the director's preferences by looking at how the haunting narrative is presented in the film, both in form and in content.
We congratulate Res. Asst. Eda Çekemci for her work and wish her continued success.
