El Pepe: Yüce Bir Yaşam ve Buena Vista Social Club Belgesellerinde Ütopya
Utopia in El Pepe: A Supreme Life and Buena Vista Social Club

Summary/Abstract: The concept of utopia expresses the desire for a good future and the search for common good. The films El Pepe: A Supreme Life (Kusturica, 2018) and Buena Vista Social Club (Wenders, 1999) are both considered to be utopias as they depict the space where the desire to reach that good “place that does not exist” meets politics and also discuss the potential of dreaming that includes change. Based on this idea, these two documentaries will be analyzed in a historical perspective within the framework of the possibilities and limitations of the place where utopia and politics intersect. It is important to state that these documentaries were made at a time when dystopias were dominating the cinema landscape and other creative fields. In this respect, these documentaries are considered as the reflections of the need for utopias in their own period. According to Traverso (2018), utopia is almost a category of the past and does not belong to the present time of societies, and this evaluation constitutes a main argument in the axis of the study. On the other hand, documentaries are analyzed without ignoring the fact that utopian ideas create a rhetoric that provides the courage and understanding to go beyond the conditions. The directors of the documentaries, Emir Kusturica and Wim Wenders have a connection with each other in the context of their voice almost calling out from the world of the last century to the present time and their inclusion in the narrative while establishing the narratives of the documentaries. Both documentaries deal with the bitter history of Latin America through a utopian imagination. The documentaries are discussed within the framework of the concept of utopia and nostalgia since nostalgia can be regarded as a remarkably similar concept to utopia in terms of time. Beyond the longing for the past, nostalgia is considered with aspects that remember and remind the possibilities of the past. The attitude in the documentaries is also associated with the concept of melancholy within the perspective discussed by Traverso.

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