Cinematic Visual Representation of Refugee Journeys in Turkey in the Context of Precarious Class Dynamics

Abstract

In this article, I comparatively analyse the imagery of precarious class through the narration of refugee journeys in Turkey for two different films, with an emphasis on the visuality of cinematic narration. Whilst The Guest Aleppo to Istanbul (2017) by Andac Haznedaroglu and More by Onur Saylak certainly offer different portrayals of refugees in Turkey, both reflect on the precarious class dynamics in the context of migration and reveal the complex interplay of citizenship, meritocracy and suffering. By focusing on precarious status, these fictional representations illustrate that the incoming non-citizens provide the opportunity of self-reflexibility for the host community members and expose the fragility of the border between the citizen-self and the refugee. I contend that such distinct comparative portrayals encompassing precarity instead of humanity, as common ground between host and new arrival populations, necessarily requires drawing upon a broader literature on the human conditions for politics of justice rather than pity.