In what ways do films depict migrant identities? What does the arabesque reveal about the emotional depths of Turkish-German cinema? In Poetics of Arabesk in Turkish-German Cinema, Nazlı Kilerci-Stevanović explores the emotional power of arabesque beyond Eurocentric narratives of identity.

The book sheds light on the role of arabesque, a musical and cultural phenomenon which has become a way for migrants to express their experiences aesthetically and emotionally. Arabesque functions as an analytical tool that captures the emotional depths of cinematic representations of migration, longing, and belonging. In her book, Kilerci-Stevanović argues for a departure from traditional identity-centred narratives and a fundamental reorientation of the discourse. Away from the reductive focus on origin and towards an examination of collective feelings and aesthetic complexity.

Emerging from her dissertation work and her work in the Collaborative Research Centre “Affective Societies” between 2015 until 2024, the book includes results from the projects Migrant melodramas and immigration: Media formats of German-Turkish community feelings and Transcultural, integrative, and racist poetics of audiovisual images.