Analysis of I Saw the Sun

1362 WORDS
ARMAĞAN EMEL HOY
 This paper examines the movie “I Saw the Sun” by Mahsun Kırmızıgül, presented in 2009,
about a Kurdish family who is scattered over various locations due to forced displacement of the
state during an ongoing ethnic conflict in rural areas of eastern Turkey, and emphasizes on the
outcomes of migration, effecting minorities.
The movie starts with a dramatical briefing on the background of the forced displacement of
native people of Kurdish decent, focusing on the cultural aspects of life in eastern Anatolia,
where it is considered a grace to have a boy rather than a girl, where there is endogamy and large
families with politically conflicted ideologies. It also shows the viewer some tragic events where
in a place that is so divided by opinion, even brothers can be in actual war with each other. This
is seen clearly when one brother, called Berat fights for the government’s army and the other,
Serhat fights for the guerilla. As Serhat dies in an ambush one night, the army orders villagers to
move. The village is consisted of one big family, “Altuns” who are hesitant to move, since the
only place they know is their village. As an outcome, they are scared, yet they have no other
option. As seen later on, their integration to different cultures will not be easy. On another
aspect, for Davut, who is the father of two sons in fight with each other, this conflict is painful
too. With the dynamics portrayed in the village, it is traditionally impossible for Davut to hang
both their sons’ pictures on the wall, as they represent the opposite sides of a war that endangers
all of the community.
One part of the family, parents and two younger brothers of Serhat, decides to move to
Norway, with seeking help from a relative there. The remaining members of the families relocate
to Istanbul, where the effects of the migration will turn out to be irreversible. These two parts of
the family will experience the migratory moves on significantly different levels. The migration
can involve some characteristics of insecurity such as discrimination and language barrier despite
bringing some other freedoms. (Sirkeci, 2003, p.11) This is not the case for the Altuns who
migrated internationally but is true for the ones who stayed. For Davut and his family,
immigration is a long, hard and lonely way. Moving towards a country without knowing their
language, culture, or even the law, makes the process trickier. When captured in Norway, while
illegally passing through, Davut explains to authorities the tragedy his family experienced back
in their home, loss of his son, injury that his other son had by stepping on a mine, and his hope
for peace after a long run of desperation thus Norway government eventually gives residence to
him and his family, and even helps out his son by providing him a prosthetic leg.
 However, Davut is neither here, nor there, as he finds himself in constant feelings of
homesickness. The loss of one’s social structure and culture can cause a grief reaction.
(Eisenburch, 1990) The viewer sees that Davut can finally hang both his sons’ pictures on the
wall, since that action will no longer be a social dilemma.
For the rest of the Altun family, tragedy continues to Istanbul. While Davut and his family try
to find a way to escape the country, two brothers, Mamo and Ramo find jobs after settling in the
whole family and enrolling kids to school. One can say that Havar, Ramo’s wife and mother of
six children, one boy, five girls with one of them being mentally disabled, is a significant
character for the family since she portrays qualifications of caretaking, motherhood and support
for the rest of the family, as it happens to reflect the eastern Anatolian culture. Culture has been
described as features that are shared and bind people together into a community. 1 Reflections of
their culture can be seen in the decoration of their new home. Although they move to a sub-urban
area, their belongings still represent their culture of the east.
The movie focuses on more than one aspect of cultural diversion and the struggle of minorities.
It also emphasizes on issues like poverty, ignorance and cultural mismatch. To broaden this
statement, one can take the Altun’s tragic experience of Istanbul. Coming from a small village
with no schools, let alone technology, Havar sees a washing machine for the first time. At first it
looks like a great ease for her chores, yet she suffers a heath condition that needs surgery and
hospitalization. After she leaves home, there is no one to take care of the children besides from
their blind grandfather, since Ramo and Mamo work all day. This leads to an accident where two
youngest sisters try to wash their brother in the washing machine and cause his painful death.
The accident becomes a turning point for the family, the girls are separated from Ramo and
given to the social services, none of them really recovers.
In addition to these cultural, traditional and political diversion, there is one more point the
movie focuses on, another minority group within the society, the side story of Kadir (Kado) who
is the transgender sibling of Ramo and Mamo. Kado is a woman who is stuck in a male body, so
in this paper Kado will be referred to as she/her. The viewer sees her feminine attitude from the
beginning to the end. After the family arrives to Istanbul, Kado meets Can, her preferred name,
Cansu who is also transgender like Kado. They become friends and stay friends even after Mamo
catches Kado with Cansu and beats her up. Kado is in her own journey during the movie, trying
to find her identity. Identity is the totality of one’s perception of self, or how we as individuals
view ourselves as unique from others.2 Kado sees herself as a woman, even though she has a
male body and brothers who are traditionally against accepting her for who she is and who will
never have the same perception Kado has. In one scene, viewer sees Kado tells the story of a
flower she keeps with her at all times to Cansu, after one night of running away from her
brothers chasing her. She tells her that the flower is a snowdrop flower, also called “Berfin” in
Kurdish, which “falls in love with the sun even without seeing it”. She explains, “Snowdrop
knows it will die when it faces the sun for the first time, still blooms towards it.”3 Kado also
mentions her situation to Cansu, after she asks if her brothers are serious followers of their
customs, stating “Customs also migrate but this is not custom. Mine is something bigger than
ceremony.”4 Mamo and Ramo find her eventually, and Kado comes out as transgender. Yet her
brothers are devoted to their cultural norms and, social and cultural qualities and attitudes are
typically more resistant to change and usually last to adjust during acculturation.5 Kado dies with
one bullet through her chest right before the sunrise and becomes a snowdrop flower
representation, on the other side of the family Davut’s son gains a prosthetic leg simultaneously,
while sorrow and loss follows the family members who stayed in Istanbul, a new hope for the
ones who fled to Norway arises. Death of Kado becomes another turning point and drives the
family into returning their homeland. The movie ends with a letter Ramo wrote to the social
service manager and a scene with remaining members on a train back to east.
Although not all people who migrate are from ethnic minority groups, it is note that a
significant proportion is.6 In this paper, social effects, cultural struggles, reaction to change of
environment and reaction to self-perception have been mentioned with an analysis of the movie
“I Saw the Sun”. To conclude, one can say that minority groups with different cultural norms can
get seriously affected in situations where they are forced to relocate, alongside with minority
groups with non-traditional gender identifications, already being affected by these various
cultural norms and customs. I Saw the Sun is an adequate representation of internal an
international forced migration example.
REFERENCES:

Sirkeci, Ibrahim. Migration, Ethnicity and Conflict, The Environment of Insecurity and Turkish
Kurdish International Migration, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield.

Eisenbruch M. The cultural bereavement interview: a new clinical research approach for
refugees. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 1990;13:715–735.

1.
Shah A. Ethnicity and the common mental disorders. In: Melzer D, editor; Fryers T, editor;
Jenkins R, editor. Social inequalities and the distribution of the common mental disorders. East
Sussex: Psychology Press Ltd; 2004. pp. 171–223.

2
Bhugra D. Migration, distress and cultural identity. Br Med Bull. 2004;69:1–13.
3,4
I Saw The Sun, Directed by Mahsun Kırmızıgül, Boyut Film, 2009.
5
Bhugra D. Bhui K. Mallett R, et al. Cultural identity and its measurement: a questionnaire for
Asians. Int Rev Psychiatry. 1999;11:244–249.
6
Bhugra, Dinesh and Becker A., Matthew. Migration, Cultural Bereavement and Cultural
Identity, World Psychiatry, 2005.