Over the years, the depiction of expression of female aggression by male narrators in Turkish cinema has changed from women being portrayed stereotypically as masochistic recipients of male aggression to a closer look at how women's aggression plays a part in their internal struggle of differentiation to become an independent individual. I will contemplate on this change by emphasizing a movie that embodies female aggression profoundly; “Geranium” (2021) by Çağıl Bocut.
In a patriarchal world, men are defined on an individual basis, whereas women as an extension of men. On an anatomical basis, the visible positioning of the male genitalia and its penetrating function opened a way to understand the little boy's primary experiences, needs and drives. Thus, male aggression is often expressed by directing it outward. But what about females? In the face of intrusive masculine aggression and social expectations, it seems as if women have no choice but either to express “their dark side” implicitly or repress it, in accordance with the nature of female genitalia. Now, I would like to give some examples about woman’s aggression depicted on the screen from a male gaze. Till 2000's, Turkish movies mostly portrayed victimized and helpless women in threat of masculinity. Women are shown as scared, fragile and naive, always in danger of being crushed by men. These female characters have no choice but passively remain silent or manifest their anger implicitly. A striking example may be given from a famous Turkish movie “Iffet” (Chastity, 1982). In one scene, the protagonist is raped by her fiancé, with her head stuck in the car window. Right after this scene, which reflects male violence and domination, she says “Don't worry, I'm ready for anything that comes from you, as long as you don't leave me”. Here, we see that the female aggression is repressed, and she is portrayed as in need of a man to be protected or even exist. In other movies of that era also, anger is only expressed by male characters in a penetrating way, while female anger is either expressed by “manly” women, or eroticized through creation of “femme fatale” characters, or thrown into obscurity and darkness.
Healthy use of aggression has an important role in a woman’s life. It seems that a girl's journey to become a different woman from her mother depends on the level of comfort she finds in being same-sex with her. But this is tricky. Despite need for comfort, nurturance and connectedness, the ability to use aggression as a means to separate and differentiate from mother is crucial. As time passes, we encounter male directors in Turkish cinema who genuinely wonder about female’s internal journey; also, try to understand their own feminine side. Çağıl Bocut is one of these male directors with his debut film “Geranium”. Throughout the film, he depicts female aggression in the absence of maternal comfort and affiliation leading to destruction as opposed to separation and differentiation. The movie is about the relationship between a father and his 19 year-old daughter Defne; and the “sacrifices” being made to save their relationship. In the first scene, having heard that her father had an apoplexy, Defne is forced to return home. In front of her house, she realizes a sacrificial sheep tied, belonging to her aunt. So the story begins foreshadowing the potential sacrifice of a woman. Then, we learn that Defne’s mother died recently, the caregiver who has been living with them and working for years finds it difficult to take care of everything and her aunt has cancer. While all feminine figures are damaged, how can Defne find comfort to express her anger and mourn the loss of her mother? Besides, she feels guilty, wants to help her father's recovery and mend their damaged relationship since she left home after her mother died. It is possible that the reason why she left home was that she experienced her mother's death as an actualization of her aggressive phantasies about destroying the mother and wish to replace her because of her Oedipal desires towards her father. So, she is slowly drawn into a family drama and unwittingly ends up annihilating, poisoning maternal figures including her aunt, the dog and the caregiver. Her anger denies everything that may help her to mourn and finally differentiate from and at the same time identify with her mother. In the last scene, we see her bathing her father. Eventually the primal anger phantasies become real, causing her to poison all dangerous maternity, thus replacing her mother to relate to her father.
In this short essay, I tried to illustrate that ultimately, in Turkish cinema, female aggression which was previously inexplicable, obscure or denied is nowadays transformed into an issue that male directors can put effort to imagine, thus create lively characters. Let's see what happens in the future…
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