PRESENTATION OF FEMALE AND MAN IN THE FRAMEWORK OF FEMINIST FILM CRITICISM “VAVIEN

In our previous issues, I tried to create a preliminary information about these movies while we were finding movie suggestions for you, our esteemed readers. However, in this article, by presenting a different work for you, I analyze the presentation of women and men in the film "Vavien", which I think is one of the valuable films of Turkish cinema, in the context of feminist criticism. Vavien was produced in 2009 by the "Coen Brothers" of Turkish cinema, Yağmur Taylan and Duru Taylan. In this black comedy drama film of the Taylan brothers, he tells the present country family structure, unhappy human lives in the current order, the place of women in society, the inner wars and desires of people, through master actors such as Engin Günaydın, Binnur Kaya and Settar Tanrıöğen. As we come to the end of the introduction, I continue by warning that the rest of the article will contain spoilers and scene analysis, my friends.

Vavien is an electrical system where two on/off switches are connected to a single light. In order for this system to work, both buttons must be connected to each other in a healthy way. The inability of Celal, who has been an electrician for years, to fix the mechanism that should have been simple in his own way, in the house of the attorney, can actually be perceived as a metaphor for his inability to establish a connection with his environment. So much so that Celal's life, which strengthens his connection with the outside world in the continuation of the film, becomes happier -working- and becomes "Vavien". In fact, starting with the automatic opening of the car door in the opening scene of the movie, the automatic closing of the door at the end of the movie, and the ending of the movie with announcing that Sevilay is pleased with the door – which Sevilay hated the automatic door at the beginning of the movie – we see the Vavien connection in the family are examples of this metaphor.

Every individual in the movie is unhappy. Celal wants a different life, Sevilay just wants a happy family, and the child of the house wants to be loved by his father. Celal's older brother misses his wife and it seems that everyone in the family has their own secrets and problems. While Sevilay is telling her problem to the deputy, the deputy asks about stuffing. Celal's troubles are money and the woman he met in the pavilion. When Sevilay disappears, Celal talks to Sevilay's father on the phone. Dad asks for money, I almost don't care about daughter. There is Sevilay, who has pure and clean feelings, in the ugly and self-seeking human relations. The Taylan brothers have conveyed the place of men and women in society with all their reality, based on the rural region, through that sweet Sevilay.

Celal is dissatisfied. He does not share his love with his family, he does not care about them. He is neither husband to his wife nor father to his son. He cheats on his wife. He tells his son that it is useless. Husband and wife relationship is very unhealthy. Sevilay cannot ask Celal anything and cannot share anything with him. Whatever Celal wants, happens. Sevilay reflects the country woman very well. She cannot hide anything from a man. Otherwise, there is a fear that the man will divorce her. A woman's greatest fear is being a widow. While Sevilay was talking to her close friend in a scene, her friend asked, "Is there anything hidden from the husband? If you hide it, he will divorce you too.” This is one of the scenes that criticizes this idea. Towards the end of the movie, Sevilay says to Celal, "You are my everything." This again criticizes the thought of the rural woman as if she could not do anything without a man. All these show the dominant thought in underdeveloped societies, the place of women in the house.

In one scene, Seyfi takes Celal's arm and takes him into the shop. They say sentences like I'll show you the new goods have arrived and they start looking at the photos. We'll see the photos afterwards while they make good or bad comments. I think of the people we see as women who have just started working in the pavilion. Here, it caught my attention that the man looks at the woman as a commodity and judges them by their appearance without knowing them at all. This scene is an example of the depiction of the woman in feminist criticism as an object. It echoes Kuhn's notion of "women are sacrificed for men to enjoy" in feminist criticism. This thought continues when one goes to the pavilion. Celal says that he gave the woman free money, but he actually wants that woman. In Feminist Criticism, we see the "prostitute" typology, which is a title in Molly Haskel's thought of "women typing". Under this type, the woman is the spectacle for the man and exists to satisfy his fantasies, the woman has no feelings or values, even the thoughts that can be bought with money. All these indicators are examples that follow the path of feminist criticism and that we can come across in the film. The women playing on the stage of the venue in the pavilion exist only to satisfy the men. Men create their own fantasies with women in their dreams. By the way, all the women there are of one type. They dress as short as possible because the more revealing they can be dressed, the more they can impress men and give them pleasure.

In another scene, Celal goes on a picnic with his family friends to put his dirty plans into action. The picnic begins. While the men sit there and fence the core, the women try to make a fire there. Men don't move their hairs. Afterwards, the women prepare the meals, the meals are finished. They serve tea. Men, on the other hand, do not hold back from a job or even thank them. Meanwhile, the weather gets worse and it starts to rain. The men get into the car. Women collect all picnic supplies. Men still do not help in any way, on top of that Celal warns them to be quick. There is a perception that men are different from women, they do not deal with these things, they just enjoy themselves. Women are just servants. What's worse is that Sevilay is almost content with this situation. He doesn't make a sound. He thinks of it as if it were his duty because he has been taught it for years. Apart from Sevilay's relationship with her husband, communication with her parents is another problem. While talking to his family in Almayan, his family constantly asks for money and insults Celal. Sevilay, who is talking to her father on the phone, cannot even talk to her mother. His father immediately hangs up because he writes a lot. He doesn't even ask how his daughter is. That doesn't change even after her daughter disappears. Considering that Sevilay is dead, Celal talks to Sevilay's father on the phone. Your father's only concern is money and waving at Celal. No one thinks about the lost, perhaps dead woman on this painful day. With these scenes, the value of the girl in the country, the place of women in the family and the inequality between men and women have been revealed.

Being a man and a woman is an event. we learn to be men and women in society. There are indicators loaded on students and men in society. It is from women and is inserted into certain molds since the past. For example, it is blue or pink related to children born. Why would a child be that prison just for choice? Why is pink the color of women? Here we see a recurring one in the movie. She knits a cardigan for Sevilay Celal. The cardigan is yellow in color. Celal doesn't wear it and says "it's like a woman thing". However, there is no connection between the color yellow and being a woman. But again, red-eye pink, purple, etc. The little ones are taught to be wrong from being dressed right.

Celal hardly loves his son. But he experiences a break in this love. This break happens when Celal finds out that he sees himself as a rival and that the daughter of the neighboring family and his son are getting closer. She goes and loves her son and tries to wrestle with him. Celal is proud of his son, he thinks he is a real man. There is this perception in society from the past to the present. When a man gets close to a woman, it is considered flattering for the father, as if it were a feature of being a man. You will be appreciated. But if you are a woman, you have to hide it from your family, even from everyone. Because women do not have such a right in society. That's pretty much how they measure honor. You can be despised, you can be blamed.

Celal, who is transformed towards the end of the movie, now spends more time with his family and makes things right. This transformation did not happen with Celal's direct inner desire. Not being able to find what he was looking for outside, his wife giving him money, not blaming him for the events and his son's actions enabled him to return home. It was the woman who made all the sacrifices to be happy and to keep the family together. This has always been the case not only in the provinces, but also in all societies that have continued.

I tried to analyze this production, which criticizes such sensitive issues with dark humor, preferred a simple narrative language and created an extraordinary effect, in the context of feminist criticism and tried to give you a little bit of a new perspective. Goodbye friends, taking shelter in your forgiveness if we have made a slip of tongue!