Erden Kıral

Erden Kıral — Biography

Erden Kıral was a director who stood out in Turkish cinema from the late 1970s and through the 1980s for his literary adaptations and his attention to the world of peasants and the poor. The film that carried his name abroad was Hakkâri'de Bir Mevsim (A Season in Hakkari), his adaptation of Ferit Edgü's novel, which won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. He died in Kumluca on 17 July 2022, aged 80.

He studied ceramics at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts and came to cinema through film criticism and magazine editing, assisted directors such as Yılmaz Güney, and made commercials and two short films. He adapted his first feature, Kanal, from Yaşar Kemal's Teneke, then filmed Orhan Kemal's novel as Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde, which took the grand prize at Strasbourg in 1981 and won Kıral best director at the Golden Orange. In 1983 he settled in Berlin, where he directed Ayna, Dilan and Av Zamanı, the last of which represented Turkey in Berlin. Mavi Sürgün, Avcı, Yolda, Vicdan, Yük and Gece followed in later years.

He won further best director awards for Mavi Sürgün and Yük, and received lifetime honours from the Antalya and Adana festivals. A member of the Berlin Academy of Arts from 1984, he saw Yolda accepted into the Harvard Film Archive.