“Hell Is Other People!”: Otherness in an Absurd World—An Analysis on Tayfun Pirselimoglu’s Kerr

Otherness is one of the basic concepts of sociology, and being or feeling different in appearance or character from what is familiar, expected, or generally accepted. Others give the individual the integrity of the self but are also perceived as a threat to the self and identity. This study examines Turkish director Tayfun Pirselimoglu’s film Kerr (2021) from the point of view of a Kafkaesque and Camusian absurd (Camus, The Myth of Sysiphus (J. O’Brien, Trans.). Penguins Books, 1979) world where otherness takes place. In the chapter, the absurd and the element of sociological otherness is discussed in the context of why the hero is positioned as the other and how the loss of rationality supports this otherness. Absurd situations and mystery that seems to harm the possibility of meaningful communication force the hero to survive in a terrifying cycle (which also means Kerr) and a hellish environment. The study will mainly evaluate this otherness phenomenon on the axis that the hero and the local people do not communicate meaningfully. Does the loss of rationality destroy the possibility of meaningful communication? Is absurd inherent in life or does culture suggest it? Answers to these questions will be sought in the study.