Ömer Kavur

Cinema director, scenarist, producer (B. 18^th June 1944, Ankara – D. 12^th May 2005, Istanbul). He started his education in Istanbul Kızıltoprak and continued in Robert College and Kabataş Erkek High School. After that, he went to Paris for higher education. He took the education of social sciences, journalism and cinema. He studied for master degree on the history of cinema in the University of Sorbonne. He attracted attention with the short movies he shot in this period and he received some awards. He worked as an assistant director in the movie L'Homme qui mérite (1968, The Man Who Lies) of Alain Robbe Grillet and The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) of Bryan Forbes.

After returning to Turkey in 1971, he shot documentaries and commercial films for a while. He realized his first full-length film Yatık Emine in 1974, beyond the conditions of Yeşilçam. The film adapted from a story of Refik Halid Karay took attention with its plain expression and understated sensitiveness. After that, Kavur returned back to commercial films and shot Yusuf ile Kenan in 1979, which was a movie about the lives of destitute children in Istanbul. Ah Güzel İstanbul (1981) that was adapted from a story of Füruzan to the screenplay and Kırık Bir Aşk Hikâyesi (1981), of which the story was written by Selim İleri, were productions shaping the measurable and proper cinema of Kavur. The movie Göl, which he shot from the scenario of İleri in 1982, was a different trial in the Turkish cinema with the suspense elements it contained.

In 1985, he focused on the pursuit of love of small people in Amansız Yol, of which he prepared the scenario together with Barış Pirhasan and which had the influence of the German cinema director Wim Wenders. In the movie Körebe, of which he wrote the scenario again with Pirhasan in the same year, he drew the impressive image of the city life after 1980, by starting from the story of a lonely woman searching for her daughter who was kidnapped. Anayurt Oteli, which he adapted from a novel of Yusuf Atılgan in 1987, was one of the most successful movies produced by the Turkish cinema in that period. The movie, which represented the internal stress of a person and the stability of the province life in an atmosphere of perturbation just like a suspense movie, took intention with its plain but deep expression. Kavur put into the screen the process of internal feud and self-knowledge of a director in Gece Yolculuğu in 1988. Gizli Yüz, which was shot in 1991 an    d based on one of the stories of the novel Kara Kitap of Orhan Pamuk, was accepted as one of the masterpieces of the Turkish cinema. The movie Akrebin Yolculuğu, which was criticized by saying that Kavur “repeated himself” in 1996, was accepted into the part named “Un certain Regard” of the Cannes Film Festival.

Kavur received the awards of the best director, the best movie and the best scenario with the movies Kırık Bir Aşk Hikâyesi, Anayurt Oteli, Gece Yolculuğu, Akrebin Yolculuğu, Gizli Yüz and Karşılaşma in the Antalya Altın Portakal Film Festival. Yusuf ile Kenan won the grand award in the Milan Children's Film Competition in 1980, Anayurt Oteli won the award of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) in the Venice Film Festival in 1987, the award of the best movie and the best male actor, together with Macit Koper, in the Nantes Three Continent Film Festival in 1987 and the third prize in the Valencia Film Festival. Amansız Yol and Anayurt Oteli came first in the section of Turkish Cinema competition of the International Cinema Days in Istanbul.

WORKS:

 Yatık Emine (1974), Yusuf ile Kenan (1979), Ah Güzel Istanbul (1981), Kırık Bir Aşk Hikâyesi (1981), Göl (1982),  Amansız Yol (1985), Körebe (1985), Anayurt Oteli (1987), Gece Yolculuğu (1987), Gizli Yüz (1991), Aşk Üzerine Söylenmemiş Her şey (1995), Akrebin Yolculuğu (1996), Melekler Evi (2000), Karşılaşma (2002), Beybaba (2003), Patroniçe (2004), Beş Kollu Avize (2004).