Coming to Turkey—Passing Through Turkey: Migration Routes and Spaces in the Cinema of Emigration

Abstract

International migration is a dynamic phenomenon that shapes urban spaces in Turkey. This study focuses on 18 films that depict the experiences of migrants who see Turkey as a transit country or a temporary stop, offering insights into their journeys and perspectives. Using a qualitative analysis of cinematic narratives and spatial representations, the study highlights key locations, such as Istanbul, the Aegean coasts, and occasionally the Black Sea, where migrants often find themselves in waiting spaces, like motels, barns, or warehouses, facing uncertainty, violence, and discrimination. By examining these spatial representations and symbolic elements, the study explores how cinema reflects migration’s social and urban impacts, demonstrating its potential as a tool for understanding this complex process.

1. Introduction

Turkey has been affected by various internal and external migrations throughout history, from the past to the present; thanks to these migrations, it has acquired a rich culture and a multi-layered socio-spatial structure. Migration, which is carried out as a spatial, perceptual and temporal whole, has an important place in the construction of countries and cities.

Migration is defined as ‘the movement of a person or people from one country, locality, place of residence, etc., to settle in another; an instance of this’ (Oxford English Dictionary 2025). However, the reason for migration, the length of stay in the destination country, and its patterns have varied throughout history. Migration may have economic, social, or political causes; it may be an individual decision or a movement imposed by states. While the term settle in the definition suggests permanent residence in a new place, migration can also be temporary relocation, (Güleryüz 2015, p. 49). Throughout history, people have migrated or been exiled due to climatic conditions, epidemics affecting humans, animals, or plants, religious and national tensions, and wars. Individuals from financially struggling or middle-class backgrounds may migrate permanently or temporarily to improve their economic conditions. It can be observed that all these migration movements have been carried out for very different reasons, by different groups of people, for varying durations and through diverse methods (Karpat 2015).

International migration is a dynamic, multi-dimensional, complex and mobile phenomenon. There are both regular and irregular pathways that individuals may take to migrate. Nermin Abadan-Unat points out that while states, through interstate agreements, have legalized labor migration in order to restructure, they have also, due to market demands, turned a blind eye to unauthorized cross-border movements aimed at seeking a better life (Abadan-Unat 2015). Today, international population movements are reshaping countries and societies worldwide by influencing bilateral and regional relations, security, national identity, and sovereignty. In this context, international migration has become one of the main items on both local and international political agendas (Castles and Miller [1993] 2008).

Given the significance of this issue, this study focuses on international migration movements that have taken place over the past 100 years in the history of the Republic. It is possible to examine international migration movements in Turkey’s history in three periods: the first period between 1923 and 1950, the second between 1950 and 1980, and the third from 1980 to the present. In the period between 1923 and 1950, migration was largely shaped by the arrival of Turks and/or Muslims from former Ottoman territories, including a formal population exchange agreement. The period from 1950 to 1980, on the other hand, witnessed large-scale labor migration from Turkey to Europe, particularly to West Germany. From 1980 to the present, political turmoil in Western Asia along Turkey’s eastern and southern borders has played a major role. These include the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, the 1980 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the 1980–88 Iran–Iraq War, the 1988 Halabja massacre, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the 1991 Gulf War, and the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. By the end of this period, the largest migration waves in the history of the Turkish Republic occurred with the war in Syria that began in 2011. The number of migrants arriving from Syria exceeded the total number of migrants in the Republic’s history up to that point, reaching more than 3.6 million (Kaya 2023; Corliss 2003; Danış et al. 2009; Tekeli 2023).

The first of these movements was caused by the Convention and Protocol Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations, signed on 30 January 1923, during the Lausanne Conference. It required the compulsory exchange of Greek Orthodox Christians born and raised in Turkey with Muslim citizens of Greece who had grown up on Greek territory. The exchangees, transported from Eastern Thrace to Turkey by train, and between Greece and Turkey by ships, faced numerous difficulties. Many fell ill and 2819 people died during the exchange, and there were severe problems related to nutrition and housing, as well as long-standing disputes between the two countries over what would happen to the property, estates, and real estate left behind by the exchangees. These issues led to years of economic hardship and to exclusion and political tension among communities speaking different languages. From today’s perspective, it is argued that this was not merely forced migration but exile camouflaged under the name of “population exchange”, intended to serve the nation-state project by removing Greek and Turkish minorities. The drive for national identity and religious homogeneity is criticized as having resulted in ethnic cleansing, carried out as part of the strict Turkification policies of the early Republic. Similarly, the perception by states of their populations as commodities that could be expelled or traded is seen as one of the harmful legacies of the exchange (Macar 2015).

While exact figures vary across sources, it is estimated that around 125,000 Greeks left Turkey either before the exchange tool place or during it, while approximately 499,239 exchangees were brought to Turkey (Arı 2003). Nermin Abadan-Unat notes that, during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic, a total of 384,000 people came from Greece to Turkey. In the same period, significant numbers of Turks and Muslim communities also arrived from other Balkan countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia. She reports that 121,620 people came from Romania and 300,000 from Yugoslavia as political migrants due to human rights concerns (Abadan-Unat 2015).

Other migration waves after the early years of the Republic include migrations to Turkey between the 1930s and 1944 related to the Second World War, and labor migration from Turkey to Europe in the 1960s. These movements were followed by migrations from Soviet Bloc countries, especially Bulgaria, after 1989, from Iraq after 1991 and, the most recent and largest wave, from Syria in 2011.

The largest wave of migration from Iran to Turkey occurred after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Around one million people used Turkey as a transit country, of whom approximately 100,000 did not proceed to a third country and instead settled in Turkey. The second major wave took place during the Iran–Iraq War between 1980 and 1988. Beyond these two waves, migration from Iran continued throughout the 1990s and 2000s due to political and economic difficulties. Iranian migrants in Turkey are noted for their considerable ethnic diversity and for falling into various categories, such as labor migrants, family migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Unlike many other migrant groups, however, Iranian migrants are often described as being highly skilled and well educated (Kalfa Topateş 2023).

There are three significant dates for migration from Afghanistan to Turkey. The first is 1980, when Afghans fled their country following the Soviet invasion and arrived via Iran, with many being resettled in various provinces of Turkey in 1981–1982. The second period began with the 2001 U.S. invasion and intensified after the Taliban regained control in 2021, during which irregular migration grew substantially, alongside a continued rise in registered migration. According to statistics from 2014–2023, Afghans ranked first among migrants in Turkey, with a total of 677,995 people (Güler 2023).

There have been several turning points in migration from Iraq to Turkey. The most recent migration movements occurred following the Iran–Iraq War that began in 1980, the Gulf Wars, and the U.S. invasion. In 1988 and 1991, there was an influx of Kurdish refugees from northern Iraq, amounting to around half a million people and, by 2005, it was reported that approximately 40,000 Iraqis were residing in Turkey (İçduygu and Kirişçi 2009; Kalaycı 2023).

The main factor behind migration from Syria is, once again, war. The internal conflicts that began in Syria in 2011 led Turkey to adopt an open-door policy for incoming migrants, resulting in a process in which approximately 3.6 million Syrians under temporary protection gradually became settled. Studies conducted during this period, for example in 2015, showed that only about 12–13% of Syrians lived in camps located in 10 provinces, while the vast majority around 87% resided outside the camps. Over time, various regulations were introduced to address challenges faced by Syrians, such as access to employment, education, and healthcare services (Erdoğan 2015; Aygül 2023).

Apart from the countries mentioned, another important source of migration to Turkey is the African continent. The most recent African migration that has shaped present-day Turkey began in the 1990s. Students had started coming after the 1980s with various scholarships and, through chain migration, others followed; after completing their education, some married and settled, forming communities in cities such as Istanbul. Since the 1990s, people have arrived from West Africa, initially led by migrants from Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. Traders coming for commercial purposes settled in areas like Laleli, Kumkapı, and Aksaray. Finally, there are the third group: refugees and asylum seekers. The largest proportion within this group has been from Somalia, which has lacked central state authority since 1991. They are followed by people from Sudan, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Côte d’Ivoire, all of which have experienced civil wars, although their numbers are smaller. Some of these migrants seek asylum in third countries, while others remain. Among the total migrant groups, Senegalese constitute the largest group among West and Central Africans, followed by Nigerians. From the eastern part of the continent, Sudan and Ethiopia, along with the aforementioned Somalia, are the main countries of origin (Şaul 2015).

While Turkey has received migrants from various countries, it has also historically served as a transit country due to its geographical position between Asia and Europe, as well as to the contrast between economically and politically developed European countries and less developed countries in the region. Transit migrants are individuals who use Turkish territory while traveling to another country, typically a more developed nation and most often in Europe. Transit migrants constitute a subgroup within irregular migration. In Turkey, figures for irregular migrants are often cited as ranging from 150,000 to 1,000,000. Considering the countries of origin, the majority use Turkey as a bridge to cross from its eastern and southern borders toward destinations in the west (İçduygu 2015; İçduygu and Kirişçi 2009). Transit migrants spend an indefinite amount of time in transit countries until they gain illegal entry into the west (Castles and Miller [1993] 2008).

As a country that has historically both sent and received migrants, Turkey’s position as a receiving country has become even more pronounced due to recent migration flows. In this context, the aim of this study is to conduct a spatially oriented analysis of migration cinema, focusing on the migration waves to and through Turkey, in order to explore how these movements are represented through film.

Migration Cinema

Migration cinema is a film category that provides important data for fields such as cinema, migration studies, cultural studies, and urban studies. These studies focus on how migration is addressed in cinema, examining themes like migrants’ experiences, identity symbols, reasons for migration, migration routes, and resettlement processes. Migration cinema revives past and present migration movements, making migrants’ experiences understandable to society. This is particularly significant for architecture, as films depict the relationships migrants establish with the places they live in, the spaces they temporarily inhabit, and their resettlement environments, offering valuable insights for the discipline.

Migration cinema also highlights the life experiences of migrants in cities and the effects of urban environments on them from cultural, sociological, and spatial perspectives. By showing cities, streets, neighborhoods, workplaces, and public spaces, these films reflect urban life’s complexity and diversity. They emphasize cultural diversity, migrants’ efforts to create a new home, and their search for identity and belonging. Studies in this field explore how migration shapes cities’ demographic, economic, and social structures, addressing issues such as migrant settlements, labor market integration, and social exclusion. This interdisciplinary approach deepens our understanding of the interactions between migrants and cities, enriching urban studies and migration research. It is possible to divide migration cinema into different subcategories, including the classification of migration categories explained in the previous section. Based on this, migration cinema in Turkey can be divided into two different categories: domestic migration and international migration films. International migration films can be divided into three categories: films about arrival in Turkey, films about departure from Turkey, and films where Turkey is one of the stops on the migration route and is a transit country.

Studies of migration cinema in Turkey are largely studies that include film analyses. The majority of studies in the field focus on migration from villages to cities in Turkey (internal migration) and labor migration from Turkey to Germany (external migration). When the literature is examined, it can be determined that some of the films that have been the subject of the most academic studies on internal migration in Turkey focus on internal migration within Turkey, depicting movements from rural areas or smaller cities to larger urban centers, especially Istanbul. Primarily produced between the 1960s and 1980s, they often explore themes such as economic hardships, labor exploitation, housing shortages, urban sprawl, and the rise of informal settlements (Pişkin 2010; Çöloğlu 2013; Demir 2021; Mertol et al. 2021; Balcı 2022; Balcı 2023).

In examining the literature in the field, the films that have been the subject of the most academic studies on external migration in Turkey focus on external migration from Turkey to other countries, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. They often address themes such as cultural adaptation, identity struggles, labor exploitation, and the emotional toll of migration, with a notable emphasis on movements to Germany (Osmanoğlu 2016; Kula and Koluaçık 2016; Agocuk et al. 2017; Özkoçak 2019; Tilbe and Tilbe 2020; Çipe 2021).

Apart from these examples, the literature on films dealing with different forms of external migration is limited, as mentioned. In the literature, as in this study, two studies were found that exemplify films in which Turkey is shown as a transit country in international migration. In the study titled Irregular Migration in Turkish Cinema: An Assessment in the Context of Historicity, Kemal Eker briefly touches upon a few transit country films in a very large pool of migration films (Eker 2021, p. 409). In the book chapter titled “Migrant Bodies in the Land/City/Seascapes of 2000s Turkish Cinema”, Bayrakdar (2022) examines the representation of migrant experiences in six films (Bliss, The Wound, Rıza, Broken Mussels, The Guest, and Seaburners) through land, sea, and cityscapes using the concepts of heterotopia, transitional space, and non-place. This study highlights a shift in the Turkish cinema of the 2000s from land and cityscapes to seascapes, reflecting changes in migration phases and public perception.

As a result, due to the scarcity of studies of films where the migration route does not start in Turkey and Turkey is the destination or transit country, the subject in question should be investigated more deeply with a sample covering a larger number of films.

2. Materials and Methods

Considering the refugee population in Turkey and the people trying to cross into Europe via Turkey, the traces of these two subjects in migration cinema should be investigated.

Based on this, 18 short and feature-length, national and international films were examined in this study.

Table 1. List of selected movies according to the dates of the migration movement.

The Name of the Film and Year	Migration Movement—Country
Waiting for the Clouds (2003)	Greece
My Grandfather’s People (2011)	Greece
Torn Love (2017)	Greece
The Edge of Heaven (2007)	Germany
When We Leave (2010)	Germany
Rhino Season (2012)	Iran
Turtles Can Fly (2004)	Iraq
A Madonna in Laleli (1998)	Balkans
Autumn (2008)	Georgia
Rıza (2007)	Afghanistan
Brought by the Sea (2009)	Ghana
Seaburners (2014)	Chaldeans, Sub-Saharan Africa (country not specified)
The Abandoned (2015)	Syria
The Guest (2016)	Syria
More (2017)	Syria
Refugee (2017)	Syria
Ronaldo (2020)	Syria
The Swimmers (2022)	Syria, Eritrea

below shows the selected films for this study, ordered based on the years when the migration depicted in the films occurred in real life.

While creating this selection, importance was given to the consideration of films in which Turkey was not only the starting point of migration, but sometimes only a stop, since the aim of this study is to examine and list the spatial traces of international migrations experienced throughout the history of the Republic of Turkey through cinema. First of all, the films to be examined within the scope of this study were selected from a very large group. While selecting the films, they were categorized according to the migration movements they represented and their spatial richness was analyzed. Then, formal and informal spaces were identified and discussed through the created film selection. The study presents the morphological characteristics and spatial strategies of international migration from the smallest structural scale to the urban scale through a historical panorama. In today’s world where migration movements are increasingly diversified, the study will be useful in understanding the effects of international migration on urban spaces at different scales.

The film selection criteria were as follows:

• Films should represent the major migration movements in Turkey during the 21st century and within the first 100 years of the Republican period, only including cases where Turkey served as either a transit or a destination country.
• Films should depict physical spaces in Turkey, such as cities, villages, coastlines, or national borders, and present them clearly on screen.
• Films should cover migration from all countries bordering Turkey.
• Films should be fictional (narrative) works.
• Films should be recent productions from the last thirty years, depicting migration events that took place within the 100 years of the Republic.
• Given the low representation of women in the film industry, films should include as many female directors, screenwriters, or lead actresses as possible.
• The selection should include films directed or created by Turkish filmmakers or filmmakers from the region, including those who are migrants themselves or whose families have a migration background, thereby ensuring a regional perspective centered on Turkey.

When the selection was formed, it was found that four of the directors themselves, or members of their families, had migration backgrounds: Feo Aladag, born in Austria, works on themes related to the German–Turkish diaspora; Fatih Akın, a German-born Turk, has a diasporic background; Çağan Irmak’s family, on his mother’s and grandfather’s side, were immigrants. Sally El Hosaini, born in Wales to Egyptian parents, also has a diasporic background. Two directors carry identities based on different ethnic origins and come from regions very close to national borders: Bahman Ghobadi, of Kurdish origin, born in Iran, grew up in border regions and is known for migration-themed films; additionally, Özcan Alper grew up near the Georgian border and is of Hemshin origin. Apart from the seven films by these six directors, the remaining works were created by directors and screenwriters from Turkey, focusing on the experiences and perspectives of citizens from Turkey. It is considered enriching that the selection includes both migrant-origin and local directors and screenwriters. Of the 18 films, 6 have female directors and/or screenwriters (Yeşim Ustaoğlu—Director and Screenwriter, Nurdan Tümbek Tekeoğlu—Director and Screenwriter, Feo Aladağ—Director and Screenwriter, Melisa Önel—Director and Co-Screenwriter, Feride Çiçekoğlu—Co-Screenwriter, Andaç Haznedaroğlu—Director and Screenwriter, Sally El Hosaini—Director and Co-Screenwriter). With 6 women and 11 men directors, the 35% ratio, while not ideal, is quite favorable compared to the proportion of women directors in the film industry. In the U.S. sample, women accounted for only 6% of directors over a 17-year period from 2007 to 2023, while in Europe women represented 25% of directors of feature films active between 2013 and 2022 (Smith and Pieper 2024; Simone 2023).

In addition, in more than half of the films, 10 from 18, women and girls appear as protagonists, with narratives largely centered on female migrants. For instance, Waiting for the Clouds (2003) focuses on Ayşe/Eleni, while When We Leave (2010) tells the story of Umay, and Rhino Season (2012) follows Mina. In Turtles Can Fly (2004), Agrin is at the center of the narrative, whereas The Abandoned (2015) portrays an unnamed female refugee. Similarly, The Guest (2016) revolves around Lena and Meryem, both in leading roles, while The Swimmers (2022) tells the true story of Yusra and Sara Mardini, two Syrian sisters. In Refugee (2017), the protagonists are a nameless woman and her daughter. Seaburners (2014) also features women at its core, centering on a migrant mother and daughter alongside the female scientist Denise. Finally, in The Edge of Heaven (2007), the story of Ayten adds another perspective on female migration experiences. Altogether, more than half of the films in the selection place migrant women’s stories at the center, highlighting the gendered dimensions of migration.

The method of research is content analysis, which is a qualitative research method. The subject of the analysis are the images of the places and vehicles shown in the films during the migration movement. In this study, 18 short and feature-length, national and international films released from 1998 onwards were examined. While creating this selection, importance was given to considering the films in which Turkey was not the starting point of the migration; it was the country of arrival, and sometimes only a stopover. Table 1 lists which films were selected from the history of cinema to represent the migration movements experienced throughout the history of the Republic. Although an attempt was made to include films representing all migration movements in the history of the Republic, some movements, such as those from Bulgaria, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia, could not be represented due to a lack of available films or their unavailability. When the accessible films are examined, it is understood that the number of films depicting migration movements taking place on the western borders of Turkey is quite low compared to the eastern and southern borders. Film on Syrian migration was encountered most often in the research. In the table below and in the main line of the study, the films are listed according to the date of the migration movement they describe. The selection includes the films Waiting for the Clouds (2003), My Grandfather’s People (2011), Torn Love (2017) representing Greek forced migration; and The Edge of Heaven (2007) and When We Leave (2010) for German migration. Similarly, the films Rhino Season (2012) represent Iran, Turtles Can Fly (2004) Iraq, and A Madonna in Laleli (1998) the Balkans. The films Autumn (2008) for Georgian migration, Rıza (2007) about Afghan migration, and Brought by the Sea (2009) and Seaburners (2014) for Sub-Saharan African migration are included in the selection. The film Seaburners (2014) also shows Chaldean migrants. The research has identified many films that feature Syrian migration. Among these, those which could be accessed and selected for this research are The Abandoned (2015), The Guest (2016), More (2017), Refugee (2017), Ronaldo (2020) and The Swimmers (2022). The Swimmers (2022) includes Syrian immigrants as well as immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa.

In this study, only fictional films were selected. The main reason for this choice is that fictional productions have the ability to reconstruct migration-related narratives by making use of the possibilities offered by cinema. Through fictional films, migration stories spanning a hundred years, about which there may be no existing visual materials or documentaries, can be recreated. Especially in research conducted in the field of architecture, focusing on space as in this study, spatial use can be discussed through fictional films. While documentaries and photographs provide direct transmission of information, their primary purpose is the delivery of facts; instead of a spatial structure, they may rely on interviews with people. Therefore, spatial narration often requires the use of fictional films.

As Ar points out, cinema, as a medium for conveying space and spatial archetypes, shares a close relationship with the discipline of geography through its abilities to design, produce, and present. From this perspective, cinema as a vehicle for transmitting spatial phenomena holds meaningful common ground with geography. Both geography and cinema, which evaluate the individual and the object holistically within their mutual contexts, also regard space as a field of experience. Cinematic space is thus not merely a physical setting but a medium where social relations are produced and negotiated, making it an essential narrative component in understanding and representing social phenomena (Ar 2020).

3. Results

In this study, the 18 films listed in Table 1 and

Table 2. List of films: title, year, director, screenwriter, and country.

The Name of the Film and Year	Director	Screenwriter	Country
Waiting for the Clouds (2003)	Yeşim Ustaoğlu	Yeşim Ustaoğlu	Turkey
My Grandfather’s People (2011)	Çağan Irmak	Çağan Irmak	Turkey
Torn Love (2017)	Nurdan Tümbek Tekeoğlu	Nurdan Tümbek Tekeoğlu	Turkey
The Edge of Heaven (2007)	Fatih Akın	Fatih Akın	Germany, Turkey
When We Leave (2010)	Feo Aladağ	Feo Aladağ	Germany
Rhino Season (2012)	Bahman Ghobadi	Bahman Ghobadi	Iraq, Turkey, Iran
Turtles Can Fly (2004)	Bahman Ghobadi	Bahman Ghobadi	Iran, France, Iraq
A Madonna in Laleli (1998)	Kudret Sabancı	Kudret Sabancı, Önder Çakar, Serdar Akar	Turkey
Autumn (2008)	Özcan Alper	Özcan Alper	Turkey
Rıza (2007)	Tayfun Pirselimoğlu	Tayfun Pirselimoğlu	Turkey
Brought by the Sea (2009)	Nesli Çölgeçen	Ersin Kana	Turkey
Seaburners (2014)	Melisa Önel	Feride Çiçekoğlu, Melisa Önel	Turkey
The Abandoned (2015)	Korhan Uğur	Korhan Uğur	Turkey
The Guest (2016)	Andaç Haznedaroğlu	Andaç Haznedaroğlu	Turkey
More (2017)	Onur Saylak	Onur Saylak, Doğu Yaşar Akal, Hakan Günday	Turkey
Refugee (2017)	Ramazan Kılıç	Ramazan Kılıç	Turkey
Ronaldo (2020)	Raşit Algül	Avni Tuna Dilligil	Turkey
The Swimmers (2022)	Sally El Hosaini	Sally El Hosaini, Jack Thorne	UK, USA

were analyzed one by one using the content analysis method. The findings obtained will be presented in this section. The films are listed according to the date of the migration movement they include in their stories. The vast majority of the 18 films in this section are feature films. All of the films are fictional films, and documentaries are not included.

The findings obtained as a result of the research are presented under separate subheadings for each film. In addition to basic information about the films, such as subject, year, and outline of the scenario, these sections also include information on countries of migration, migration routes, and migration locations, specific to this study.

3.1. Waiting for the Clouds 2003

The inspiration for the 2003 feature film written and directed by Yeşim Ustaoğlu is the book Tamama (Andreadis 1997). The film has been shown in dozens of festivals and has won awards from over ten festivals, including the Berlin and Sundance Film Festivals (Köseoğlu 2013, p. 35). The film tells the story of a forced migration. Ayşe/Eleni is the daughter of a Greek family who were forced to migrate from the Black Sea in the early 1920s, at a time of forced population movements and ethnic expulsion of Greek Orthodox communities. While walking from Tirebolu to Mersin, she and her brother Niko were left alone in the snow. While they were in the snow, a Turkish family took them in. Her brother Niko ran away from this new home and went to the barracks with the other orphans. One day, they took all the orphans away, but Ayşe/Eleni stayed with her new family. Years later, she returned to Tirebolu with her “sister” from her adoptive family and settled in the house where she was born. She lived with the guilt of not going with her brother Niko for 50 years. When her sister died, she remembered her native language and her brother. With the help of Tanasis, who was also forced to migrate from the Black Sea and returned to Tirebolu years later, she goes to Thessaloniki to search for his brother, whom he had been separated from years ago. The route of migration and the means of travel, the countries and locations shown in the film are listed in

Table 3. Migration country, migration places, migration route and travel vehicle in the movie Waiting for the Clouds (2003).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey Greece	Tirebolu Ruined Greek Houses Traditional Black Sea House Plateau, plateau houses Tirebolu Castle (Sen Jan Castle) Boat, beach and sea Foggy mountains in the Black Sea Church in Thessaloniki	From Tirebolu to Mersin and Greece Returning from Thessaloniki to Tirebolu	Walking Oxen Boats Buses

. The most important locations in this film are the highland house in the Black Sea, the foggy mountains, and Tanasis’s old house that he found when he returned (Ustaoğlu 2003).

This film portrays the Turkification and Islamization policies implemented during the transitional years from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey, efforts to homogenize the population that subjected people to ethnic discrimination, religious oppression, and acts of ethnic cleansing. On the eastern Black Sea coast, before the population exchange treaty between Greece and Turkey was signed in 1923, a large local population of Orthodox Greeks—estimated conservatively at about two million—was violently removed (Morris and Ze’evi 2019). The film reflects the lifelong consequences of forced displacement, separation from family members, and political pressure aimed at erasing one’s identity, language, culture, and religion. It also underscores the human dimension of the loss of the pluralistic coexistence of diverse religious and linguistic communities that had lived side by side in the Ottoman Empire but were eradicated in the Republic of Turkey.

3.2. My Grandfather’s People 2011

My Grandfather’s People (2011) is a feature-length film written and directed by Çağan Irmak, released in 2011. The director tells the story of his own childhood in the film. 1,204,183 people watched the film in theaters. The film won the Best Art Director award at the 44th SIYAD Turkish Cinema Awards (Most Production 2021).

In the film, Mehmet Bey’s parents, who were forced to migrate from Crete via the 1923 Population Exchange, settle in Izmir. Mehmet Bey starts working there and later settles in a town in Izmir and gets married. He has children and grandchildren. Mehmet Bey becomes one of the respected tradesmen of the town. His son-in-law is the deputy mayor. In order to establish communication with the opposite shore, Mehmet Bey leaves letters in a bottle in the sea every day, describing the house and neighborhood where he was born. The family, who were ostracized in Crete because they were Muslims, were labeled as “infidels” in Turkey years later. His grandson is affected by this situation and attacks the new immigrants. Seeing this situation, Mehmet Bey shares stories of forced migration. Unable to bear the changing order and the family’s situation with the military coup, Mehmet Bey commits suicide at sea. When his grandson Ozan grows up, he goes to his homeland with the story his grandfather told him and finds his neighborhood and home. The route of migration and the means of travel, the countries and locations shown in the film are listed in

Table 4. Migration country, migration places, migration route and travel vehicle in the movie My Grandfather’s People (2011).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey Greece	Coast, beach School Municipality Town Center Shops Winter house Summer house Greece: House Greece: Neighborhood Greece: Port Quarantine hospital	From Crete to Izmir, from here to the town Years later, his grandson goes to Crete	Walking Oxcarts Boats Ferry

. The most important locations used in this film are the seashore and the image of a house in Greece (Irmak 2011).

While My Grandfather’s People addresses the migration event mentioned previously, similar to the earlier film, it depicts a family forced to migrate from Greece to Turkey, who were subjected to policies of homogenization. One notable aspect of this narrative is that even third-generation descendants of migrants’ experience identity and belonging issues; the enduring longing for the home left behind, and the rigidity of the state is critically highlighted. In the film, the youngest member of the family, a baby, dies on the ship due to an epidemic, representing 2819 official deaths recorded during forced displacements in that period. To prevent the disease from spreading to others, the baby is thrown into the sea, and a symbolic empty grave is created for the child in the garden of their new home. This narrative makes clear that the migration was not merely voluntary or incidental, but part of a broader nation-building process in the early Republic of Turkey.

3.3. Torn Love 2017

Written and directed by Nurdan Tümbek Tekeoğlu, this 2017 short film is another film depicting the compulsory population exchange. In the film, Ali is forcibly relocated from Thessaloniki to a village in the Karaburun district of Izmir with his aunt and grandmother as part of the compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Here, his records are taken and he is placed in the house of a Greek who migrated to Greece via the exchange. While they were a wealthy family in Greece, the living conditions and the house in the village are disappointing. There are arguments and prejudices between the locals and the exchangees. Here, Ali fights with the son of Himmet Ağa, one of the village leaders, for the girl he loves, Nergis. As a result of this fight and their dissatisfaction with the place they were forced to settle in, the family migrates to Istanbul to stay with a relative. Ali starts working for a jeweler there. He cannot communicate with Nergis. Nergis gets married to Himmet Ağa’s son. Years later, Nergis also settles in Istanbul. Later still, when Ali goes to Ali’s shop and meets Nergis, Ali cannot stand this excitement and passes away. The migration route and means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 5. Migration country, places of migration, migration route and means of travel in the film Turn Love (2017).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey Greece	Beach Old Greek house Fountain Village Houses Istanbul: Home Istanbul: Workplace Tea garden	From Thessaloniki to Izmir Karaburun, from there to Istanbul	Boat Walking Ferry

, along with the countries and locations shown. The most important locations in this film are again residential buildings (Tümbek Tekeoğlu 2017).

The film depicts the compulsory population exchange through economic hardship and class differences, showing how displacement reshapes social hierarchies and inequalities between locals and the newly arrived families.

3.4. The Edge of Heaven 2007

The Edge of Heaven (2007) is a feature-length film written and directed by Turkish-German film director Fatih Akın, whose family settled in Germany as a labor migrant many years ago. Akın, whose own family were also migrants, is one of the most important directors of migration cinema and “Accented Cinema” today. The director has many films in which he tells stories of migration and migrants. The most famous of these is Head-On (2004), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2004. The film tells the love story of two Turks living in Germany. Another film by the director, The Cut, released in 2014, tells the story of state-enforced forced removal of Armenians from Mardin. Among these films, the director’s film The Edge of Heaven (2007) was included in the study, considering the nature of the sample. The film earned Akın the best screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival.

The main character of the film, Ali, migrated from Trabzon to Germany as a laborer many years ago. His son Nejat is a professor in Germany. Ali causes the death of his girlfriend and goes to prison. Nejat also comes to Turkey from Germany to search for his father Ali’s girlfriend’s daughter. In time, Nejat takes over a bookstore in Beyoğlu and settles in Istanbul. In the meantime, Lotte comes to Istanbul to help her girlfriend who was deported from Germany. After Lotte is killed in Istanbul, Lotte’s mother also comes to Istanbul and starts to stay at Nejat’s house. Years later, Nejat goes to Trabzon to see his father, who is released from prison (Akın 2007).

The film is a return film. It tells the story of the character who migrated to another country through international migration and his son’s return to Turkey. In addition, it tells the story of how the relationships established by Turkish immigrants in Germany caused Germans to come to Turkey. The migration route and means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 6. Country of immigration, places of immigration, route of immigration and means of travel in the film The Edge of Heaven (2007).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Germany Turkey Hamburg Bremen Istanbul Trabzon	Germany: University dormitory, lecture hall, dining hall Court hall Repatriation center Lotte’s House Istanbul streets Istanbul Haydarpaşa Istanbul Çukurcuma Prison Istanbul-Trabzon road Beach	From Germany to Turkey From Istanbul to Trabzon	Airplane Car

, along with the countries and locations shown. Unlike other films, a repatriation center is shown. In addition, the film highlights the stark contrast between a homeless immigrant living illegally in Germany who is shown sleeping in a university amphitheater, and her peers, who enjoy very different economic conditions

The significance of this film for research lies in its depiction of the cultural differences between first-generation and second-generation immigrants resulting from labor migration from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, the inclusion of both undocumented and politically displaced migrants alongside labor migrants, and, finally, the representation of highly skilled, upper-income, retired German citizens living in Turkey. The film also depicts return migration, as Ali, who had previously moved to Germany for labor migration, returns to Turkey years later. In the case of the highly skilled, upper-income, retired German citizens living in Turkey, academic literature classifies this type of migration as atypical. Historically, while lower- and middle-class groups migrated from their countries due to pressures, wars, and economic or political reasons to nations with better economic conditions, this type of migration focuses on upper-income retirees moving to countries like Turkey from Germany, Northwestern Europe, and the United States. The film illustrates this migration type through characters such as Nejat and Susanne, Lotte’s mother, who settle in Turkey for different reasons. Sources identify migrants in this category, such as Nejat, as EU citizens seeking an alternative lifestyle; he leaves his university professorship to run a bookstore. Susanne, on the other hand, comes to Istanbul due to her daughter’s relationship with a Turkish woman, similar to the relatives of families formed through mixed marriages discussed in the literature (Balkır and Kaiser 2015; Tamer Görer 2014; Rittersberger-Tılıç 2023; Pusch 2013).

3.5. When We Leave 2010

The 2010 film When We Leave, written and directed by Feo Aladağ, has been shown at dozens of international festivals and won awards. In the film, Umay’s family came to Germany from Turkey to work years ago and settled here. Umay was born and raised there, and later returned to Istanbul, after getting married. Umay lives in an apartment on the outskirts of the city with her husband and his family. She and her child are subjected to violence by her husband. One morning, Umay takes her child and returns to Germany to her family. The film tells the story of Umay’s survival struggle and her struggle to hold on in the city as a single woman with a child in Germany. The route of migration and the means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 7. Migration country, migration places, migration route and travel vehicle in the film When We Leave (2010).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Germany Turkey	Istanbul: Home Istanbul: Public transport Germany: Home Workplace Women’s shelter University Park Police station Turkey: Village Hospital	From the villages in the east of Turkey to Germany From Germany to Istanbul From Istanbul to Germany	Airplane Bus

, along with the countries and locations shown (Aladağ 2010). The most important locations in the film are residential areas, designed almost identically in both Germany and Turkey, with no difference between them. The film conveys the message that, even if the country changes, traditions remain the same.

What sets this film apart from the others is its emphasis on the controlling, conservative, and misogynistic nature of networks established by migrant communities in Europe during labor migration from Turkey. From a feminist critical theory perspective, the film can be read as illustrating how, even across national borders, the cinematic space represents women in terms of gender, showing how space reproduces itself socially and how women are depicted within it. In this film, private spaces as sites of deprivation and exclusion are redefined across two countries.

3.6. Rhino Season 2012

Rhino Season is a 2012 feature film written and directed by world-famous Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi. Many of the director’s films discuss issues such as migration, belonging, and borders between countries. The director’s first feature film, Time for Drunken Horses (2000), tells the story of children smuggling on the Iran–Iraq border and has won awards at many festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival. Two of the director’s feature films were selected for this study, Rhino Season (2012) and Turtles Can Fly (2004). Rhino Season (2012) tells the story of a family migrating from Iran to Turkey. In the film, a poet, who was arrested during the Iranian Revolution and tortured for years, is reported to his family to have died. His family mourns at a fake grave. His wife later comes to Istanbul and spends years looking for ways to leave with her two children. After 30 years, the poet is released from prison and comes to Istanbul to look for his wife. The migration route and means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 8. Migration country, places of migration, migration route and means of travel in the film Rhino Season (2012).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Iran Turkey	Forest Prison Istanbul streets Bosphorus Houses by the sea Bath	From Iran to Turkey Departure from Turkey, destination unknown	Bus Fishing boat

, along with the countries and locations shown. In this film, as in The Edge of Heaven, there is a main character who is in prison for political reasons. However, the most important location of this film is the city of Istanbul (Ghobadi 2012).

According to Castles and Miller ([1993] 2008), emerging patterns of cross-border movements since the 1970s have been characterized by four key trends: (1) globalization, (2) differentiation, (3) feminization, and (4) the politicization of migration. Until the 1980s, men constituted the majority of migrants; since then, approximately half of international migrants have been women. In this film, women’s migration experiences are also highlighted, including undocumented labor, sex work, and other forms of marginalization. Abadan-Unat (2015), in her writings on the issues faced by migrant women since the 2000s, emphasizes the feminization of international migration, noting that currently 54% of migrant workers in Europe are women. Some of these women are exposed to problems such as irregular migration, human trafficking, and sex work. The female characters in the film exemplify these issues.

3.7. Turtles Can Fly 2004

Written and directed by Bahman Ghobadi, the film Turtles Also Fly (2004) tells the story of Agrin, her brother and her child, who fled to Erbil after Saddam Hussein’s Halabja massacre and then came to a refugee camp on the Turkish–Iraqi border, and what they experienced in a refugee camp on the border. During the war, a wire was drawn between two villages opposite each other, and one village remained in Turkey and the other in Iraq. In the refugee camp set up on the border, all the children collect mines and sell them, and try to earn money by selling war scrap there. The refugee camp tries to connect to the world through a satellite dish, and the village has no electricity, water, or school; there is nothing. With the arrival of American soldiers, Saddam is overthrown and the refugee camp is emptied. The migration route and means of travel shown in the film, along with the countries and locations shown, are listed in

Table 9. Migration country, migration places, migration route and travel vehicle in the movie Turtles Can Fly (2004).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey-Iraq Border	Refugee Camp Adobe Houses Tents Border Open Air Classroom Scrapyard	From Halabja to Erbil Then to the refugee camp on the Iraq-Turkey border	Walking Pickup Truck

(Ghobadi 2004). The entire world for the people in the film is the refugee camp. Turkey is like a landscape that is constantly looked at but cannot be reached.

The film’s most important spatial feature is its depiction of the border. At the border, it portrays the experiences of displaced children, highlighting forced migration, childhood trauma, survival strategies, and the risks of mortality. As in Waiting for the Clouds, children in conflict zones are left vulnerable and orphaned, navigating spaces shaped by displacement.

3.8. A Madonna in Laleli 1998

The films On Board (1998), directed by Serdar Akar, and A Madonna in Laleli (1998), directed by Kudret Sabancı, are feature-length films with intertwined stories. The films show silent immigrant women who are bought and sold like objects in the tense and uncanny environment of criminal life in the back streets of Istanbul. The film A Madonna in Laleli (1998), on the other hand, tells the story of a three-person gang involved in the sex trade in Istanbul, marketing a Romanian woman for sex work. In the film, multiple gangs clash and members of the gangs try to rip each other off. The route of migration and the means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 10. The country of migration, places of migration, migration route and means of travel in the film A Madonna in Laleli (1998).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey	Laleli streets Home Hotel Offices of various shops Bar Clinic Ship	From Romania to Turkey	Unknown

, along with the countries and locations shown (Sabancı 1998). The most important location in the film, as understood from the name of the film, is the Laleli district. The nightlife in the district, the shops, and the streets are an important part of the visual identity of the film.

The type of migration represented in the film involves movements from Eastern European countries of the former Soviet bloc to Turkey, as well as migrant smuggling. While approximately 100,000 people arrived in Turkey from the ex-Soviet world before 1980, official statistics from 2007 indicate that 7.2 million people had entered Turkey from the Balkans and former Soviet countries, during and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some of these individuals overstayed their visas in Turkey and become involved in sex work, as in the next film Autumn (İçduygu and Kirişçi 2009).

3.9. Autumn 2008

The film Autumn (2008) was written and directed by Özcan Alper. The director won many awards for the film. Alper, who is from Hopa, Artvin, witnessed the migration flow in the Eastern Black Sea region with the opening of the Georgian border. Another film by the director, Memories of the Wind (2015), tells the story of Armenian journalist Aram, who tried to escape to the Soviet Union via the Eastern Black Sea region in 1943. Due to the scope of this study, the director’s film Autumn (2008) was included in the research.

The leading role in the film Autumn (2008) is played by Yusuf, a young socialist. Yusuf spent 12 years in prison for political reasons and was released when it was understood that he was ill and was in the last days of his life. Yusuf returned to his hometown Çamlıhemşin and met Georgian Elka, who was working as a barmaid in the tavern in the district he went to at the insistence of his friend. Elka, who studied mathematics in Georgia, came to Turkey to work after the collapse of the Soviet Union to cope with economic difficulties and to take care of her daughter. Elka, who becomes emotionally close to Yusuf, wants to escape from her situation and eventually quits her job and returns to Georgia to be with her daughter. The migration route and means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 11. Migration country, migration locations, migration route and means of travel in the film Autumn (2008).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey Georgia	Black Sea houses Town center, market Stationery Tavern Hotel room Pier Market Restaurant Customs gate	Turkey via Georgia–Batumi border gate	Minibus

, along with the countries and locations shown. The border here is different from in all the other films due to its spatial characteristics. The border is a spatial element that can be easily entered and exited during the day and is almost integrated with the district. Another important location in the film is Yusuf’s house in Çamlıhemşin, where he returns after many years. The locations of the immigrants in this film are bars, cheap hotels and bedrooms, as in the previous film (Alper 2008).

As in the 1998 film A Madonna in Laleli, this type of migration depicts women coming from former Soviet countries to Turkey to work. The difference from the previous film is that, while in that one the Eastern European woman remains silent, is carried around like an object by men, and is pushed into prostitution by them, here the woman is shown as a subject acting of her own will. She represents, as indicated in the literature, migrant women who work to save money by choice. Unlike the previous film, even though she works in the entertainment sector and in sex work, she speaks, forms emotional relationships, makes decisions for herself, and eventually leaves Turkey. In conclusion, both the nature of migration and the perspective on migrant women are portrayed very differently in these last two films.

3.10. Rıza 2007

Written and directed by Tayfun Pirselimoğlu, the feature film tells the story of Rıza, a truck driver, who is stranded in Istanbul when his truck breaks down. Having difficulty finding money to repair his truck, Rıza visits many people to find money but to no avail. In the meantime, he meets Gulam, an Afghan illegal immigrant, at the motel where he is staying. Gulam and his bride want to go to Italy to visit Gulam’s son through Turkey. Rıza sees the money in Gulam’s wallet and attacks him. After taking the money, he contacts the smugglers with remorse to send Gulam’s bride to Italy, but the police catch Gulam’s bride at the motel (Pirselimoğlu 2007). In this film, too, the image of the immigrant woman is silent and passive.

The route of migration and the means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 12. The country of migration, places of migration, migration route and means of travel in the film Rıza (2007).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey	Motel Istanbul streets Laundry Truck park Eminönü A toilet in an underpass Minibus interiors	From Afghanistan to Turkey From Turkey to Italy	Unknown

, along with the countries and locations shown. The most important location in the film is clearly the cheap motel where Riza and Gulam stay. Istanbul is a scenic element in the film. While Riza stays in bunk beds with other men in one room of the motel, Gulam and his bride have a separate room and have divided the room in two by hanging a blanket in the middle of their room for gendered division and personal privacy.

In the film, the immigrant Gulam is portrayed as the good character, while Rıza from Turkey is shown as the bad one. Although Gulam treats Rıza with a friendly, kind, and polite attitude, Rıza easily kills him for money and then faces no consequences. While Gulam is depicted as such a good person, the simplicity and ease of the crime create the impression that, whether they are women or men, wealthy or not, immigrants are vulnerable victims, easily exposed to crime. The film also reflects the uncertainties surrounding transit countries: a transit country may sometimes become the final destination of the journey; migrants may be forced to stay there for indefinite periods, or irregular migrants may be caught by the police.

3.11. Brought by the Sea 2009

This feature film directed by Nesli Çölgeçen is about migration from Africa. In the film, police officer Halil suspects an African immigrant and chases him and kills him. After this incident, Jordan, a Ghanaian who left the police force and came to Turkey illegally with his mother and tried to cross to Greece, meets his father in Greece and the family seek asylum in England. Jordan and his mother are put on a boat with a group of immigrants who are being held in a cave by migrant smugglers. The boat sinks and Jordan’s mother dies. Former police officer Halil finds Jordan on the beach and brings him to the hospital. Halil tries to help Jordan. Jordan escapes from the repatriation center and goes to Halil. Halil hides the child but the police find the child. Halil kidnaps Jordan, who is being held in a child protection institution, and tries to go to Greece illegally. The boat sinks, Halil dies, and Jordan is left alone again (Çölgeçen 2009).

The migration route and means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 13. Migration country, places of migration, migration route and means of travel in the film Brought by the Sea (2009).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey Sub-Saharan Africa Ghana	Beach Hospital Police Station Home Repatriation Center Child Protection Agency	From Africa to Turkey via an unknown route From Turkey to Greece via Dalyan	Pickup Truck Boat

, along with the countries and locations shown. It is interesting that a cave is used as a waiting area for the refugees in the film. In addition, the coast and boats are places both of hope and death.

In this film, the sea is portrayed as a place of death. The relationship between the police and the migrants is also narrated from the perspective of Turkish citizens. Using the classical “good cop–bad cop” trope, the film depicts one police officer feeling guilt after accidentally causing the death of an African migrant, while the other continues with his life as if nothing had happened. In this narrative, the “good cop” is portrayed as “heroic,” risking his own life to reunite a child he finds drowning at sea with his father. This narrative is problematic and unrealistic because it simplifies complex structural issues into individual moral choices, shifts responsibility away from systemic violence, and creates a misleading sense of redemption through personal sacrifice.

3.12. Seaburners 2014

Seaburners (2014), directed by Melisa Önel and written with Feride Çiçekoğlu, is another feature-length film examined within the scope of the research. The main character of the film, Hamit, is involved in migrant smuggling with his small truck between the back streets of Istanbul and a Black Sea town on the border. Hamit has a relationship with Denise, a botanist working at a research center in the region. The film shows a foreign scientist coming to Turkey, in contrast to the immigrants coming from Istanbul and being kept waiting in a poor coal mining town on the west of the Black Sea. The immigrants consist of a Chaldean mother and daughter and a mixed group coming from Sub-Saharan Africa (Önel 2014).

The route of migration and the means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 14. Migration country, migration places, migration route and travel vehicle in the movie Seaburners (2014).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey	Small coal production facilities A House A Barn Beachside hut Swamp Coast Beach Istanbul Streets	before and after Turkey is unknown	Pickup Truck Boat

, along with the countries and locations shown. It is important in this film that the immigrants contact a telephone operator in Istanbul and are kept waiting in a barn in a poor village on the border.

In this film, the narrative is presented from the perspective of migrant smugglers, while also addressing the experiences in Turkey of women from different countries. Once again, the film constructs a dichotomy between “good” and “bad” smugglers, as well as between a highly educated female scientist who has voluntarily migrated to Turkey and an irregular migrant woman with her daughter. The kind-hearted protagonist of the film, much like the “good cop” in the previous one, is depicted dying at sea.

3.13. The Abandoned 2015

Written and directed by Korhan Uğur, this feature film focuses on the experiences of a Syrian mother and daughter fleeing the war in Izmir. The organ mafia in Izmir finds the kidney they are looking for in a Syrian woman fleeing the war. The immigrant woman, the surgical team and the mafia meet in an abandoned sanatorium to perform the surgery, but things do not go as planned. The route and means of travel shown in the film, along with the countries and locations shown, are listed in

Table 15. Migration country, migration places, migration route and travel vehicle in the movie The Abandoned (2015).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey	Streets of Izmir Hospital Guesthouse Abandoned Sanatorium	From Syria to Turkey	Unknown

. The most important location in this film is the boarding house (a low-cost lodging place where migrants stay temporarily, often with shared rooms and minimal services) where the immigrants are staying. Here, immigrants from many different countries are shown together (Uğur 2015).

In this film, the main idea regarding migration is that, in a transit country, people may face dangerous situations for an indefinite period of time in order to gather the money demanded by smugglers. In the boarding house where the migrants reside, they are shown lining up to give blood to people from the organ mafia in the hope of selling their organs. In other words, the migrants voluntarily offer to sell their organs to the organ mafia for money. This disturbing representation frames migrants as both desperate and complicit in their own exploitation. Moreover, the female lead is portrayed as a mother who sacrifices her own organ for her daughter, which again reproduces the problematic cliché of the self-sacrificing, kind-hearted migrant.

3.14. The Guest 2016

The producer, screenwriter and director of the feature film The Guest (2016) is Andaç Haznedaroğlu. The leading character in the film is 7-year-old Lena. Lena has lost her entire family except for her younger sister due to the war. The film is about Lena’s story of migrating to Turkey with her neighbor Meryem and the difficulties they experience afterwards. In the film, the people of Aleppo, Syria, whose houses were bombed, set off en masse towards the Turkish border. Meryem, a young woman who lost her father in the war and has no one, takes Lena and her sister under her protection. Meryem, Lena and her sister, who arrive at the Syrian–Turkish border, do not go to a refugee camp but go to Istanbul. Their aim is to save money and escape to Europe. Lena and Meryem, who experience various difficulties in Istanbul and become homeless, eventually go to Bodrum and agree to go to Greece with the help of smugglers. Since Meryem’s money is not enough for the three of them to cross to Greece, Meryem, Lena and her little sister are sent away on a boat (Haznedaroğlu 2016).

The film has a different feature from the other films described in the research so far. The film realistically shows all the difficulties experienced by Syrians from Aleppo to Istanbul, the entire migration route, and especially what happens at the border. In addition, the film presents real-life images of how Syrians seek solutions to their housing needs in the city. The migration route and means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 16. Migration country, migration locations, migration route and means of travel in the film The Guest (2016).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey Syria	Aleppo: Streets, shops, house Border Mosque with health check Basement floor house Park Garment workshop Hospital Mosque and fountain Police station Shopping mall Streets	From Aleppo, Syria to Turkey Border from the Border to Istanbul from Istanbul to Bodrum from Bodrum to Greece	Walking Pickup Truck Bus Boat

, along with the countries and locations shown. The film provides the most comprehensive data to date in terms of the visibility of migrants in urban spaces. Syrians, who have been begging at red lights in almost all cities in Turkey for years, trying to shelter in parks and basements that are not suitable for shelter, are shown in this film.

In the film, migrants are shown sleeping and waking in parks, and begging at traffic lights, illustrating how Turkey was unprepared for the influx of migrants from Syria. The consequences of the open-door policy, the lack of adequate shelter facilities, and the insufficient conditions in camps, which force migrants to survive under harsh urban conditions, are all depicted. This depiction also highlights the structural neglect and social marginalization that migrants face, emphasizing how policy gaps and inadequate support systems push them into precarious and visible survival strategies in urban spaces.

The name of the film, The Guest, is also notable. Research shows that Syrians are not comfortable being referred to as “guests,” as labeling migrants as guests implies temporariness (Erdoğan 2015), suggesting that they are only staying temporarily and will eventually leave, similar to the perception of labor migrants in Germany. This framing can obscure the long-term challenges and rights of migrants, reducing their presence to a provisional status.

3.15. More 2017

The director of the feature film More (2017) is Onur Saylak, the lead actor of the films Autumn (2008) and Brought by the Sea (2009), which are discussed in this section. The film is adapted from Hakan Günday’s novel More (2017), which won the Prix Médicis Best Foreign Novel Award.

In the film, Ahad, who lives with his son Gaza in a coastal town, is involved in migrant smuggling with his truck. Ahad wants his son Gaza, who is a very successful student in school, to stay with him and continue his work instead of going to a good school in Istanbul. The duo brings the refugees by truck and keeps them in an underground warehouse near their homes for a while and, when everything is ready, they take them to the boats. During this waiting period, the violence and conflict arising from the power relationship between the Gendarmerie, the boat owners, his father and the refugees also affect Gaza. The route of migration and the means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 17. Migration country, migration locations, migration route and travel vehicle in the film More (2017).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey	Ahad and Gaza’s house Underground storage Boat	Unknown	Pickup Truck Boat

, along with the countries and locations shown. The most important location in the film is the underground warehouse where immigrants are temporarily kept (Saylak 2017).

Although the film is largely told from a male perspective, emphasizing constructions of masculinity, power, and violence, it also presents one of the strongest representations of a migrant woman. In the film, a woman named Ahra is portrayed as part of a group hiding in the underground storage beneath Ahad’s house, trying to secretly flee from Turkey. Due to Gaza’s interest in her, Ahra stands out and is depicted as more than just an ordinary migrant. While Öztürk and Altındal (2019), describe Ahra as a passive, victimized character subjected to coercion by Ahad and Yadigâr, members of the gendarmerie, we argue that the film frames her differently. Within the migrant–smuggler–law enforcement triangle, she is depicted as active and making decisions rather than passive. Even though sexual coercion occurs, the film frames her as someone who “will live like a wolf, using her teeth,” (Saylak 2017, 01:14:35) signaling resilience and agency. In other words, while the system exerts coercion, the narrative constructs the migrant woman as a strong, decision-making figure rather than as a purely victimized subject.

3.16. Refugee 2017

The Refugee (2017) is an award-winning short film written and directed by Ramazan Kılıç. The film is the shortest film in this selection and focuses on Syrian migration. In the film, a woman who lost her husband in the war and was forced to flee to Turkey with her young daughter sits on the edge of Istiklal Avenue and looks at her toy “Viewmaster” camera while recalling her beautiful memories from the past. The most important aspect of the film for this study is that the mother and daughter are shown sitting in front of an old building on Istiklal Avenue, a scene we are used to seeing in almost every large city in Turkey. In addition, the film shows how war affects people by suddenly shifting from the family portrait of them sitting side by side on the couch in their home to the mother and daughter sitting side by side in an urban space. People lose their families, their homes, and perhaps everything they own, and this film summarizes this situation by the spatial contrast between the two images (Kılıç 2017).

Additionally, in the film, movie posters that are part of the street texture on Istiklal Street are also used in order to contribute to the subject. Behind the mother and daughter sitting on the ground, there are posters of two world-famous migration films from the history of cinema: Costa-Gavras’s Paradise in the West (1986) and Philippe Lioret’s Welcome (2009). The route and means of migration shown in the film are listed in

Table 18. Country of migration, places of migration, migration route and means of travel in the film Refugee (2017).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey	Istiklal Street, Beyoglu Istanbul In front of an abandoned historical building	From Syria to Istanbul	Unknown

, along with the countries and locations shown.

Yılmaz and Danış (2024), in their study, state that Tarlabaşı, within Beyoğlu, serves as a “waiting room” for immigrants and low-income groups coming to Istanbul, thanks to its central location and rich social networks. Although this neighborhood is susceptible to being marginalized and stigmatized by some external factors, they argue that the informal and illegal structure here functions as “integration from below” into the city for its residents. Over the years, the immigrant population living in Tarlabaşı has changed; today, Black Africans, Syrians, and Iranians have replaced the Kurdish and Iraqi immigrants of the 2000s. This situation shows that the neighborhood maintains its cyclical character, which is called “rotational migration.” In this context, it can be said that the film shows people sitting in a waiting room.

3.17. Ronaldo 2020

Ronaldo (2020), the third and final short film of this study, directed by Raşit Algül, brings to the screen a child who left everything behind while fleeing the war, holding on to a soccer ball, wearing a Ronaldo jersey and playing ball with his lost father in his dreams. In the film, a mother and son fleeing the war wait in a coastal town in Turkey with the hope of crossing to another country by sea. They have nothing but their shack near the shipyard on the beach and the balls that the little boy never releases. As in many films in this study, the film shows a child, who is left without a father, and his mother. The film shows together the young children who lost their lives while trying to cross to Greece on the Turkish coast and the people vacationing on those coasts. The film brings to mind the Syrian baby Aylan, who died in the boat that sank while trying to cross the Aegean with his mother Rihan and older brother Galib and whose body was photographed washed up on the shores of Bodrum. Therefore, the most important location in the film is the beach. The route and means of travel of the migration shown in the film are listed in

Table 19. Immigration country, immigration places, immigration route and travel vehicle in the Ronaldo (2020) movie.

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Turkey	Coastal Town Shipyard Barracks Contrast between tourist beaches and refugees Dream places	Unknown	Departure from Turkey: By boat Arrival to Turkey: Uncertain

, along with the countries and locations shown (Algül 2020).

In the film, a single mother and son are shown, alone, trying to find money for smugglers while staying for an indefinite period in a transit country. Here, the cliché of the good immigrant woman and the Turkish male hero is repeated. Unlike the previous film, this one presents not a strong migrant woman character, but a passive and helpless woman who has lost her husband. The narrative explores what a woman might do to find money after losing her spouse, but it does so through a deeply patriarchal and disturbingly sexist lens—reducing the issue to the woman’s honor and body. This perspective reflects an extremely problematic, regressive, and objectifying attitude toward women.

3.18. The Swimmers 2022

The Swimmers (2022), directed by Sally El-Hosaini, tells the true story of professional swimmers Yusra Mardini and Sarah Mardini, from Damascus, where the Syrian war is ongoing, who go to the 2016 Olympics in Rio. In the film, two sisters who are preparing to swim in the Olympics decide to go to Germany illegally because the war in Syria has made their lives impossible. The sisters, who arrived from Damascus to Istanbul by plane with tourist visas, set off first by bus to the Aegean coast with the connections they made in İstanbul, and then by boat to Lesbos. Migrants from Eritrea join them on this journey. When their boat is old and the refugee group is crowded, and their boat is in danger of taking on water and sinking, the sisters get off the boat and swim for hours in the choppy Aegean Sea to Lesbos. But their journey of life and death does not end here. Although every stage of their journey from Greece to Germany is realistically depicted in the film, the focus of the study is on the part related to Turkey (El Hosaini 2022).

In the film, Istanbul and the historical peninsula are shown as sources of human smugglers that can be easily found by migrants, shops selling materials needed by refugees, such as inflatable life jackets, and meeting points for migrants of all nationalities. The migration route and means of travel shown in the film are listed in

Table 20. Migration country, migration locations, migration route, and means of travel in the film The Swimmers (2022).

Migration Country	Places	Migration Route	Travel Vehicle
Syria Turkey Macedonia Hungary Germany	House Pool Damascus streets Istanbul Galata Bridge Lesbos Budapest Railway Berlin refugee camp	Syria Turkey Macedonia Hungary Germany	Airplane Bus Boat Walking Pickup Truck

, along with the countries and locations shown.

Unlike most films in the study, this film tells the “success story” of sisters who, despite enduring great hardship, achieve their dreams, and can be considered one of the films that give the audience a happy ending. In the film, although the large group that set out from Turkey survived under difficult conditions, and German Chancellor Merkel is shown allocating buses for the refugees trying to reach Germany on foot, only an Eritrean mother and her baby are caught and sent back to their country. The deportation of immigrants to their home countries is a complex and controversial issue, as governments may defend their policies of protecting national sovereignty and ensuring public order by deporting individuals. However, the humanitarian dimension of these practices is often overlooked. Many deported immigrants may face dangers such as violence, poverty, or political instability in the countries they are returned to.

4. Discussion and Conclusions

The aim of this article is to examine the spatial constructions in films that depict both arrivals to and transits through Turkey over the course of the Republic’s first century. The central research question is as follows: How have migration narratives over the past 100 years represented the relationship between migrants and space? How are migration spaces, routes, means of transport, and migrant experiences articulated through spatial elements in these films?

The study was shaped by dividing the external migrations experienced throughout the history of the Republic of Turkey into certain periods. First of all, the films to be discussed within the scope of this study were selected from a very large group of films. While selecting the films, they were categorized according to the types of migration they represented and the countries of migration, and later their spatial richness was analyzed. Then, formal and informal spaces were identified and discussed via the film selection.

To address the research questions, the study followed a multi-step methodological approach. First, we compiled a list of migration flows to Turkey or via Turkey to third countries over the past 100 years. Second, we identified films that depict these flows, with a primary selection criterion being the clear inclusion of spatial representations from within Turkey. With the exception of migration from Bulgaria and the Balkans, we were able to find relevant films for each major migratory movement.

Given that the spatial representation of Turkey was the core focus of the study, the selected film corpus predominantly consists of works created by Turkish directors, screenwriters, and producers. However, in a few cases, films by directors from source countries or diaspora communities were also present.

Across all films, we cataloged the migration narratives, spatial settings, routes, and means of transportation. During analysis, several recurring themes in the representation of migrants and space emerged, which can be grouped under two broad categories:

(1)

The portrayal of migration and migrants.

(2)

The use of space.

Regarding the representation of migrants, the following observations were made:

• Most films portray migrants as helpless, impoverished, and caught in life-or-death struggles. However, many contemporary international migrants make deliberate, agency-driven decisions to migrate, often investing considerable personal resources. They migrate with hope and ambition, seeking better economic opportunities and often planning to return home as successful individuals. These types of migrant are largely absent from the films analyzed, where dramatic tension often overshadows more complex or hopeful migration stories.
• There is a dominant masculine narrative in many of the films, often centered around strong heroes or villainous male figures, while women are mostly portrayed as vulnerable, frequently in the roles of mothers or children in distress. While several films reproduce the cliché of the strong Turkish male savior versus the helpless female migrant, there are a few exceptions that offer more nuanced, agentic, and strong female characters.
• Representational imbalance is another significant issue. While certain groups—such as Greek and Syrian migrants—are frequently depicted, others, including African and Balkan migrants, are underrepresented or almost invisible. In some cases, characters from these groups appear briefly on screen but are given no lines, remaining voiceless and marginal.

Regarding the use of space, the following observations were made:

It was seen that the majority of the films in the selection included films in which Turkey was a transit country. In these films, Istanbul and the Aegean coast were frequently shown through the eyes of migrants. Only in one film was the Black Sea used as a part of the migration route. In Istanbul, the historical peninsula, Eminönü and its surroundings, the Galata Bridge, and Beyoğlu were frequently shown in the films.

In the films Rıza (2007) and The Swimmers (2022), a journey to the “region” of migrant smugglers in Istanbul was shown in order to communicate with them. A significant portion of the films are also shot from the perspective of smugglers. In these films, people are brought in like objects, stored and transferred. Sometimes their organs, and sometimes they themselves for sex work, are put up for sale.

A very large portion of the films include “waiting areas”. In the film More (2017), migrants wait in an underground warehouse, in the film Seaburners (2014) in a barn, in Rıza (2007) in a motel on the historical peninsula, in The Swimmers (2022) in a cheap hotel in Istanbul, in The Abandoned (2015) in a guesthouse in Izmir, and in Brought by the Sea (2009) in an old wedding hall. Finally, the presence of migrants in Turkey usually ends with a difficult journey to the West, especially to the shores of the Aegean Sea. In urban life, migrants mostly appear at traffic lights, in parks, or in busy areas such as Istiklal Avenue, sitting on the side of the street or in constant motion. However, sometimes they have to be invisible, and sometimes they are ignored while they are in full view of everyone and are subjected to different forms of discrimination.

In addition to these urban spaces, the films also included places of critical importance for migrants, such as repatriation centers and refugee camps. National borders, the visual barrier created by barbed wires, courtrooms and similar places stand out as negative elements that hinder migrants’ dreams of crossing the border. These elements strengthen the narrative as symbols that further deepen the fragility and hopelessness in the migration process.

The majority of the films deal with the difficult and tragic dimensions of migrant smuggling and irregular migration. In these temporary places where migrants wait to cross the border, they are depicted in a process dominated by uncertainty and full of tension. These waiting areas stand out as places that oppress migrants not only physically but also spiritually. Surrounded by a constant sense of threat, these environments have become places where they are exposed to various forms of psychological, economic and even sexual violence. Thus, these places are not only transit stops, but also host dramatic scenes where migrants struggle to survive and experience social and individual traumas.

From the perspective of the films, the Aegean Sea is a huge migration space; at the same time, it appears as a threat element for migrants, in that they can face death at any moment. Turkey is a large and dangerous transit country on this journey, a stop or temporary waiting room that forces them to wait, hope and take risks. Greece, on the other hand, is sometimes an unattainable but fascinating dream in the eyes of migrants, sometimes a longed-for safe home, and sometimes a new and difficult place of exile. However, other struggles and difficulties await the lucky few who come from Turkey’s borders and reach Greece.

This study examines how migrants are represented in cinema, how their efforts to cross borders are supported by symbols, and the difficulties they experience from transit countries to their final destinations, in terms of space. Transition points such as the Aegean Sea and Turkey have been included in films not only as geographical obstacles, but also as metaphorical spaces reflecting the internal struggles of the migration process. The visibility of migrants in the city, the hopelessness they experience within restrictive borders and their efforts to achieve their dreams have been expressed with a powerful language in these cinematic narratives.

This study offers an interdisciplinary reading of the representations of migration in cinema, analyzing how migrant identities are constructed within spatial narratives, particularly in the context of Turkish and European cinema. Through fictional films, the research reveals the emotional, cultural, and political dimensions of specific migration movements. The main contribution to the literature lies in its focus: while earlier studies on migration and space have overwhelmingly concentrated on Turkish labor migration to Europe, this study instead examines migration to Turkey and positions Turkey as a transit country. Scholarship on films addressing Turkey as a site of transit migration remains very limited, and this article provides space-centered insights into this underexplored area. Moreover, the corpus of 18 films allows for the identification of recurring themes and commonalities across different works, including films that have not previously been addressed in the literature. Importantly, the analysis also demonstrates how the migrant or non-migrant identity of the filmmaker influences representational practices. The study therefore suggests that future research on migration cinema should place greater emphasis on the question of who produces representation, making it a central concern in migration and film studies.

In terms of scope and limitations, this study focused on films set in Turkey, as space was the central concern. For this reason, the analysis largely reflects the perspectives of Turkish directors and screenwriters. However, a fuller understanding of the migration flows that have taken place throughout the history of the Republic could be achieved through narratives produced by directors and screenwriters from the migrants’ countries of origin. Such films were rare in our selection and often did not meet the criteria, yet future research in this direction would offer significant contributions to the literature.

Another limitation concerns the representation of women. While the construction, visibility, and portrayal of female migrant characters emerged as important issues, these aspects could not be discussed in depth here since the focus was primarily on spatial questions. Future studies could productively examine this dimension.

Finally, this research deliberately concentrated on fictional films in order to establish a broad selection. A similar study based solely on documentaries would likely generate very interesting insights, and such an approach is strongly recommended for future work.

In this context, cinema, offering constructed perspectives shaped by directors, screenwriters, and cultural contexts, makes an important resource for researchers studying the phenomenon of migration. It is believed that similar future studies will contribute to the explanation of the role played by space in the way immigrants are portrayed in cinema. Thus, cinema can take on a broader function not only as a narrative tool but also as a source of social knowledge.