Abstract:

Cinema studies in Turkey first started with the establishment of Army Cinema Center during First World War. With the proclamation of the Republic, revolutionary transformations were experienced in every field of society, especially in law, education and art. In this period when almost every branch of art was supported by the state, Turkish cinema was able to survive with the efforts of private production companies. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is the most important political and military leader of his era as well as a statesman who follows all kinds of innovations and developments in the field of art. He considered cinema as the seventh art of our time, as a great invention and stated that it should be supported by state. In this study, together with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's ideas and contribution to cinema, which constitutes an ideological and cultural importance; we will present the representations of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the axis of the War of Independence and biographical works that emerged as a category within Turkish Cinema. When a film about Atatürk was wanted to be produced, the political and social conditions in Turkey, as well as its perspective on history, were the main determinants of the film. This situation presents Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as one of the characters who experienced these difficulties and confusion the most. In this study, in parallel with the political and social developments in Turkey, the emergence of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as a biographical figure in Turkish cinema and Atatürk’s films as a biographical genre will be discussed.

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