THE DISSECTION

It is one of the historical days of Ottoman Empire. The Edict of Gülhane, which can be considered as the human rights document of the Empire that has been trying to modernize for a long time, is announced. The edict guarantees the security of life, property and race, especially of non-muslim communities. At the same time, the body of a 20-year-old Greek girl named AMARANDE is found in the wooded area not far from Gülhane Square where the edict is announced. After the murder of two little Greek girls at the age of 11, the third murder leaves the Palace in a difficult situation.

Sergeant Officer YUSUF is exhausted both physically and psychologically while tracing the first two murders. This provocative serial of murders causes the mandatory coming together of CHARLES AMBROSE BERNARD from Austria whom the SULTAN ABDULMEJID assigns to set up the modern medical education, his assistant SIGMUND SPITZER and Officer Yusuf both praised and avoided by people and able to successfully resolve many murders. Yusuf, who lost his father when he was a child during the uprising against the closure of the Janissary unit, is an incompatible, intravert and stiff person. But since he has useful ideas about human nature and animal aspects while tracing the crimes, he keeps his position as officer within the police organization.

For DOCTOR BERNARD and DOCTOR Spitzer who believe in bringing the western positivism like a jewellery to the Ottoman Empire, which they believe is far behind the era, Yusuf is a sort of prehistorical character making part of the traditional roots of the Empire. This intense relationship, which starts with a tension emerging from differences between civilizations and human understandings between two people, creates positive answers about the murders.

While strengthening the partnership between Spitzer and Yusuf, this fact also increases the tension and depth in their relationship. As Spitzer and Yusuf get driven away following the unbelievable murder cases in different parts of the Empire - with the modernization journey in forensic medicine and in police force at the background- the incompatibilities and similarities of two worlds appears more clearly through the individual characteristics of two partners. FUAT PASHA, who tries to hide crimes, corruption and unimaginable intrigues that he is involved in, appears not only as the biggest obstacle to the forensic medicine being established, but also as the most dangerous opponent of the reforms that Abdulmejid wants to build.

Project’s presentation