My Prostitute Love

FA49P Reflection Paper

In our cinema class which focuses on male subjectivities in the cinema of Turkey, one of the
movies which we watched in the last couple of weeks was ''My Prostitute Love'', directed by Ltfi
Akad. It was an impossible love story between Halil (zzet Gnay) who is a quiet and inoffensive
greengrocer, and Sabiha (Trkan oray) who is a beautiful, kind and coquettish sex worker. In the
movie, there were some points which can be related or can be discussed by maintaining the terms of
phallus, Oedipus complex and the law of father.

To begin with, although we have discussed lots of concepts in the class, the existence of
Oedipus complex in the movie attracts my attention mostly and it made me think about the rest of
the story which is not told in the movie. Oedipus complex is basically to feel something sexually or
emotionally to the parent of the opposite sex and it shows itself as an opposition to the parent of the
same sex, accordingly. However, these emotions are repressed in our unconscious but it can come
up in one's relationship by choosing someone as a partner who looks like his/her mother or father.
So, what I meant by thinking of the rest of the story is actually about the absence of the mother
figure in the movie. Is she dead or did she live a life which there is no place for children? If we take
Oedipus complex as a basement, it makes sense. Halil repressed his emotions by marrying a woman
who is appropriate but he doesn't feel sexual desires at all and applied the rules were made by his
father such as to live just nearby his father and to work at his father's job. However, that one day
comes and he sees Sabiha who -might look alike to his mother- he has been looking for since his
childhood(maybe?) and we tell from his looking that he can sacrifice his peaceful life for her
because the searching mother-like partner is accomplished.

Moreover, in Oedipus complex there should be an opposition to the parent of the same sex as
I said and there is. I think, Halil has been repressing his true feeling for many years and when he
finds the reason which is worth to wake his feelings up, he does it to the backbone. He completely
breaks law of father and also law of society because he also leaves his home, his wife and his
children. The superego which is an internalized version of societys norms and standards of
behavior is abandoned by Halil and his behavior reverts to Id where his sex drives and Oedipus
impulses hide. In the movie, father figure emerges time to time, he monitors his behaviors like a big
other and it feels like there is a threat or a rival rather than an identification with the same sex.
 Although, Halil considers everybody who is an obstacle to reach Sabiha as a threat, he also
feels guilty because the people he has left behind are not bad people anyway and he is the one who
is responsible from what happens, he wants to fix this; on the other hand he doesn't want to lose his
lover either. We can see that the penis is not equal to phallus; he is a man and he is responsible to
direct things but he has no power to solve problems and control his environment. Therefore, it
causes the crisis. Halil has to make a decision but Sabiha cannot turn a blind eye to destroy a family,
so, he continues his life with his family.

To conclude, I love the movie's effect on me after I watched it and I love the ability of
analyzing it in terms of phallus, Oedipus complex, etc. Actually, I often find Yeilam movies funny
because of the extreme level of romance and exaggerated acting but this one didn't bother me at all,
I could be fascinated by the movie. Even their extreme reactions to situation were sweet. I'm glad to
see ''My Prostitute Love'' and I cannot wait to see another old Turkish movie.

Zeynep Hanc 2012110048

23.10.2014