Films are one of the best test subjects for examining the depictions of hopes and despairs of migrants and the interactions between communities.

This study is an inquiry into the presence and the utility of utopianism in film, in which I explore the succession of utopianism as a mode. The issues that arise out of this research relate to the question of  “Can migration-themed films use an everyday utopianist mode and could this mode be described as intertopian”? The answer to this question relies on utopianism and a yet overlooked and necessary investigation into relationships between, or convergence of utopia, film, and migration.

In this regard, this study delves into the understudied relationship between utopianism and film with specific attention to the relationship between utopianism and European migrant film in the context of Turkish migrants’ hopes and fears. It proposes a new concept, the intertopian mode, by engaging with the relevant concepts in utopianism and migrant cinema. The intertopian mode is the space between the extremities of the utopianist spectrum, utopia, and dystopia at their most ultimate forms.

This study provides close and socio-politically situated readings of the selected films that serve as case studies to test the presence of intertopian mode. It situates each case study/film in the specific contexts and applies the research questions to demonstrate the patterns. Hence, this study explores how utopian motives, as in the form of intertopian mode, appear in migrant film and it engages with utopianism as a method for representing change, socio-cultural issues, desires, hopes, fears, and values. It lays the foundation for future investigation of utopianism in film.

Chapter 1 elaborates on utopianism by reviewing the current literature and develops the intertopian mode as a concept, which inform the analyses of the case studies. The next chapter, Chapter 2, places the focus on migration to Europe in the 20th century, briefly traces the history of migration, and analyses the sociocultural aspects of the lives Turkish migrants in Europe. The same chapter then moves on to a discussion about European migrant cinema.

Building on this theoretical framework, Chapter 3 examines whether, and to what extent, the elements identified in the analytical framework can be found in the four European films that demonstrate the experiences of migrants in Europe who come from Turkey. In this case, Tevfik Başer’s 40 Quadratmeter Deutschland  (1986), Fatih Akın’s Gegen die Wand (2004), Anno Saul’s Kebab Connection (2004) and Yasemin Şamdereli’s Almanya: Willkommen in Deutschland (2011) constitute the case studies. For the purpose of answering the question of “if and where has utopianism survived in cinema?”, the chapter tests the intertopian mode in the four case studies, and  highlights the patterns of intertopian by providing a comparative analysis between them. It utilises utopianism as a method of social dreaming, filmmaking as a social and utopianist practice. It approaches utopias and dystopias not only as a subset or a subgenre of science fiction/speculative fiction but as allegorical modes that can help instigate social and cultural change by identifying social problems and raising awareness by imagining alternatives and possibilities.

The final chapter highlights the findings that the intertopian mode is effective in depicting the experiences, hope, miseries and despair in the existing societies along with possibilities and can act as a warning sign or a good notice about the future. It shows that utopianism exists in film through the intertopian mode and that the qualities of utopian and dystopian modes collide in the intertopian mode.

The intertopian mode suggests a new way of approaching utopianism and reinforces the idea that it is relevant. Further research would be required to implement intertopian mode into different genres and categories of film. More studies need to be done to explore the use of the intertopian mode in other films than migrant film.

Didem Durak Akser studied Political Science and International Relations at Marmara University in Istanbul. After receiving her B.A. degree, she received training in Computer Science and Mathematics at Darmstadt Technical University, and she completed an M.B.A. at Barcelona Management Institute in Barcelona. Prior to receiving an M.A. in Film and TV Studies from Kadir Has University in Istanbul, she gained work experience outside of the academic sector. Durak currently works at the School of Arts and Humanities at Ulster University, Northern Ireland and continues her work in screenwriting and creative writing.