Semih Kaplanoğlu

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Semih Kaplanoğlu at the Berlinale 2010

Semih Kaplanoğlu (born April 4, 1963 in Izmir ) is a Turkish film director, screenwriter and film producer. Along with Nuri Bilge Ceylan, he is one of the best-known representatives of current Turkish cinema.

biography

Training and first feature films

Semih Kaplanoğlu began studying at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the state Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi in Izmir in the early 1980s . He finished his studies in cinema and television in 1984 with the 14-minute 16-mm short film Mobapp in black and white . He then worked as a copywriter. In the late 1980s, Kaplanoğlu worked as a camera assistant on the documentaries Eski Evler Eski Ustalar (1986) and Mimar Sinan'ın Anıları (1989) by Süha Arın (1942–2004) and began publishing articles on the subject of fine arts and film. In 1990 he was responsible for the catalog of Erol Akyavaş 's exhibition Iconoclasts in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg .

In the early 1990s, Kaplanoğlu presented another short film, the 8-minute color film Asansör (1993). He became known to a broad Turkish audience as the author and director of the 52-part television series Şehnaz Tango , which was broadcast from 1994 to 1996 by Show TV and Inter Star TV . Kaplanoğlu then wrote columns for Turkish daily newspapers, including the Karşılaşmalar column (English: "Encounters").

In 2000 Kaplanoğlu made his feature film debut with Herkes kendi evinde , for which he also wrote the screenplay. The story of a young Turk and orphan (played by Tolga Çevik ), who visits the family olive grove near Alaçati with his grandfather ( Erol Keskin ) who has returned from Russia , was very popular with local critics. In 2001, Herkes kendi evinde and Serdar Akar's football film Dar Alanda Kısa Paslaşmalar were awarded the prize for the best Turkish feature film at the Istanbul International Film Festival and the main prize at the Ankara Film Festival . The American industry service Variety praised Kaplanoğlu's film as a sensitive directing work, but criticized the plot as overly predictable.

After his feature film, Kaplanoğlu founded the film production company Kaplan Film Production together with producer Suzan Hande Güneri and screenwriter Orçun Köksal , with which he realized his subsequent film projects. In 2004, Melegin Düsü - Angel's Fall followed, his second feature film, with which he was able to build on the previous success. In the drama, Tülin Özen slipped into the role of a young Turkish woman who was sexually abused by her father for years. When she comes into possession of the clothes of a dead woman, she releases her lethargy, which turns into aggression and violence against her father. Melegin Düsü was awarded several international festival prizes and also found a German distributor. German critics compared the film with the works of Andrei Tarkowski . The Berliner Zeitung praised the film as an “idiosyncratic study of survival in a state of absolute devaluation”, while the film-dienst pointed out the subtle design and interpreted Kaplanoğlu's directorial work as a “religious-patriarchal Prometheus variant”. The Turkish actress Tülin Özen was to entrust Kaplanoğlu with roles in his subsequent films.

The "Yusuf" trilogy

Between 2007 and 2010 Kaplanoğlu created his backwards-narrated, multi-award-winning “Yusuf” trilogy with the films Yumurta (German: “Egg”), Süt (“Milk”) and Bal (“Honey”) with the collaboration of screenwriter Orçun Köksal , in which he was about the rediscovery of the Anatolian province. In Yumurta (2007), the 40-year-old poet Yusuf (played by Nejat İşler ) returns to his hometown after the death of his mother from his self-chosen urban exile. In the coming-of-age drama Süt (2008), which competed in the competition at the 65th Venice Film Festival , Kaplanoğlu looks at the 20-year-old Yusuf (played by amateur actor Melih Selçuk), who with his mother ( Başak Köklükaya ) on Lives on the edge of a small Anatolian town where they run a small farm. The mother urges her son to contribute more to the living, instead he dreams of a career as a poet. The portrait of a rural society under pressure to modernize received mixed reviews in the German-speaking world. While the film-dienst reviewed Süt as a “calm, subtly melancholy parable about mother and son growing up twice”, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described the film as “pseudo-profound”, whose long and beautiful shots would rarely be suitable to maintain the narrative flow .

Kaplanoğlu's third part, Bal (2010), which was invited to the competition at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival , was more popular. The filmmaker, who regards Robert Bresson as his teacher, looks at the six-year-old elementary school student Yusuf (played by Bora Altaş), whose father ( Erdal Beşikçioğlu ) earns the family's living as a beekeeper. When the bees surprisingly fail to appear and his father disappears without a trace in the Anatolian mountain forest, the boy begins to stop speaking and later goes in search of his father himself. German critics counted Bal as one of the favorites for the Golden Bear and praised the film for its lack of words, the beautiful, non-glorifying nature shots and the performance of the child actor Bora Altaş. In fact, Kaplanoğlu won the main prize of the film festival for the conclusion of his autobiographical trilogy. At the award ceremony, the filmmaker pointed out the endangered nature of Anatolia and that the Golden Bear should help to save it. “I'm interested in the human soul, in his spirit. I ask what happens to it in our presence. Let's take industrialization as an example: It gives us a lot and it also takes a lot from us. How does that change our lives? ”Says Kaplanoğlu.

Filmography

  • 1984: Mobapp (short film)
  • 1993: Asansör (short film)
  • 1994–1996: Şehnaz Tango (TV series)
  • 2000: Herkes kendi evinde
  • 2004: Melegin Düsüşü - Angel's Fall ( Meleğin Düşüşü )
  • 2007: Yumurta - Egg ( Yumurta )
  • 2008: Süt - Milk ( Süt )
  • 2010: Bal - honey ( Bal )
  • 2017: Grain - Weizen ( Grain )

Awards

Ankara International Film Festival

  • 2001: Best film for Herkes kendi evinde

Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival

  • 2007: Best Film and Best Screenplay for Yumurta

Berlin International Film Festival

European film award

  • 2010 : nominated in the categories of Best Film and Best Director for Bal - Honig

Fajr Film Festival

  • 2008: Best Director for Yumurta

International Istanbul Film Festival

  • 2001: Best Turkish Film of the Year for Herkes kendi evinde
  • 2005: FIPRESCI Prize for Melegin Düsü
  • 2008: Best Film for Yumurta
  • 2009: FIPRESCI Prize for Süt
  • 2010: Special jury award for Bal honey

Festival des Trois Continents

  • 2005: Golden Montgolfiere for Melegin Düsü

Film Festival Turkey / Germany

  • 2006: Prize of the junior jury for Melegin Düsü

Singapore International Film Festival

  • 2002: Silver Screen Award for best director and nominated in the category Best Film for Herkes kendi evinde

Venice International Film Festival

Tokyo International Film Festival

  • 2017: Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix for Grain - Wheat

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Biography with date of birth on the website of the Turkish Film Academy (www.tsa.org.tr - Turkish)
  2. Biography with date of birth on a Turkish biography directory (www.biyografi.info - Turkish)
  3. Deborah Young: Away From Home (Herkes Kendi Evinde) . In: Variety , 18.-24. June 2001, p. 21
  4. Christina Bylow: And how she dresses. A Turkish film about the loneliness of a young woman: "The falling angel" . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 25, 2005, p. 32
  5. ^ Critique by Josef Lederle in film-dienst 13/2005; accessed February 20, 2010 via Munzinger-Online
  6. a b Critique of Süt by Bernd Buder in film-dienst 1/2010; accessed February 20, 2010 via Munzinger-Online
  7. Michael Althen: The last appearance of the aristocrat . faz.net, September 1, 2008; Retrieved February 20, 2010
  8. Interview on Süt at critic.de; Retrieved February 20, 2010
  9. Peter Uehling: The soul in nature . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 17, 2010, p. 29
  10. Detlef Kuhlbrodt: Devils whisper in people's hearts . In: the daily newspaper , February 17, 2010, p. 28
  11. Elke Vogel, Claus Peter ( dpa ): Award ceremony: Golden Bear for "Honey" . ( Memento from February 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) fr-online.de, February 20, 2010; Retrieved February 20, 2010