Two Balloons Can Fly a Minaret: Parody and Fabricated Reality as Integral Qualities of Mock-Documentary in <i>aya Seyahat</I>

Abstract

This paper takes a close look at the critically acclaimed artist and filmmaker Kutlu & gbreve; Ataman's mockumentary Aya Seyahat (Journey to the Moon, 2009). We discuss the potentials and possibilities that the mockumentary mode brings to the film in detail, and address this mode as an aesthetic and critical manner that Ataman employs in his artistic practice. Through this discussion, we evaluate the ways in which the film is informed by and can be interpreted as a parodic observation of recurrent patterns in Turkish politics and representations of the national pasts. We argue that it exemplifies and endorses mockumentary's politically reflexive capacity to rethink history and the process of historiography in which historical truths are constructed. Mockumentary mode offers layers of meanings, exceeding the obvious narrative of historical parody, and invites the viewers to notice and problematize conventional narrational and stylistic methods of documenting a historical event. Thus, the film provides a criticism and comparison of the public opinion towards politics within two distinct periods in Turkey's history, namely the 1950s and the 2000s. It also opens up a space for a critical engagement with Turkey's troubled pasts and their construction as historical narratives in both cinematic and other representations.