The Sufi Literary Subtext in Kaplanoğlu’s Grain (Buğday)

Abstract

Sufism is remarkably embedded in most of the Muslim cinemas of the world. In films, it functions as a manifestation of a response towards the existent global social and political patterns. Each country’s cinema exhibits very different symbolic codes of Sufism in films. These codes can describe the narrative structure or aesthetic strategies in a film by using lyric themes, music or even philosophical approaches borrowed from the Sufi culture.

Sufism has a language that is not based on a certain method, but based on the subjective interpretations of Sufis and symbolically formed against various historical pressures. As of this reason, this article basically departs from the idea that these Sufi codes, which are basically ingrained in movies, need to be deciphered. The method adopted in this article is to examine these constructions in Semih Kaplanoğlu's science fiction movie Buğday (2017) in particular. By treating the film as a cultural text, the applications of Sufism that are inherent in Turkish cinema and, more generally, Sufism, which is inherent in global Muslim cinema, are also investigated.