POSTCARD FROM ISTANBUL: DIGITAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CITY AS MEMORY IN TASOS BOULMETIS’S POLÍTIKI KOUZÍNA / A TOUCH OF SPICE / BAHARATIN TADI

Abstract

Reconstructing space with the use of computer generated imagery (CGI) is commonly used in moviemaking to enhance the depicted pro-filmic reality, creating virtual spaces in which layers of the narrative that are more difficult to represent via realistic mise-en-scene, such as emotional conditions, can become visually explicit. In the 2003 film Politiki Kouzina / A Touch of Spice / Baharatin Tadi, the Istanbul-born Greek filmmaker Tasos Boulmetis digitally combines heterogeneous elements to reconstruct a virtual experience of his own sense and memory of Istanbul: the urban landscape in the film is a hybrid of on-location scenes of the modern city, CGI and enhanced coloring, digitally fused into a mural of historical and personal memories. By deliberately conveying a strong emotional tone to the audience, the film equates the notion of place with the experience one has of it: as the memory of mid-Twentieth century Istanbul is digitally recomposed, the city dissolves under the pressure of its emotionally charged reflection, and the general concept of “location” is redefined through individual perception. Digital technology is used not simply to bring to life a past urban setting, but becomes a tool for affect, thus revealing invisible layers of the filmic narrative.