Çetin İnanç

Çetin İnanç — Biography

Çetin İnanç is one of the fastest-working directors in Turkish popular cinema, which is why he is nicknamed the "jet director". He is best known for the 1982 film Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam, which reached cult-film audiences abroad as "Turkish Star Wars"; its fame is also why some writers compare him with Ed Wood. In 2024 it opened in Spain under the title "Star Wars Turco".

His career falls into phases. He left law studies unfinished and entered cinema in 1961 as an assistant on Atıf Yılmaz's Allah Cezanı Versin Osman Bey, and also worked in the crews of Lütfi Akad and Yılmaz Atadeniz. He began directing in 1967 with Çelik Bilek, adapted from a comic-book character, and then kept up a pace of close to ten films a year in adventure and action pictures such as Kızıl Maske, Demir Pençe and Çeko, the last starring Yılmaz Köksal. In the mid-1970s he turned to erotic films, and when censorship rules made that genre unattractive he went back to low-budget action. Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam belongs to that period and starred Cüneyt Arkın.

Later he directed films such as Ölüm Savaşçısı, İntikam Benim and Ölüme Son Adım, as well as television series. His output as director, writer and producer is said to exceed a hundred titles; in one interview he recalled finishing films in about ten days while producers asked for six.