Meltem İşler Sevindi / Koray Sevindi
Abstract: This study focuses on the cinematic representation of traditional arts, religious-ritual practices, and identity construction processes in four feature-length films by Murat Pay (Mâşuk’un Nefesi (Breath of the Beloved), Mirâciyye: Saklı Miras (Miradjiyah: Hidden Inheritance), Dilsiz (Mute), and Hep Otuz Üç Yaşında (Forever Thirty-Three)). Using a qualitative film analysis framework, the research employs close reading to examine formal elements such as camera work, editing rhythm, choice of location, and character actions, as well as thematic notions of silence, patience, and meşk (ritual apprenticeship). The investigation is guided by Assmann’s cultural memory theory, Necipoğlu’s perspective on Islamic aesthetics, and Schimmel’s conceptualization of Sufi experience, offering a reflective interpretation of the films’ cultural and spiritual layers. The findings indicate that modernity and secularization need not eradicate traditional arts or Sufi practices; rather, Pay’s films revive them through cinema, positioning these elements as dynamic forces that directly shape the characters’ existential renewal and identity formation. Thus, the tension between aesthetics and spirituality, tradition and modernity emerges as a novel cinematic quest and a form of “spiritual resistance.”
Keywords: Sufism, Traditional arts, Cultural memory, Identity construction, Modernity
Meltem İşler Sevindi / Koray Sevindi
DOI: 10.29224/insanveinsan.1668647
Year 12, Issue 40, Summer 2025
Tam metin / Full text
(Turkish)
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