Nejat Saydam

Nejat Saydam — Biography

Nejat Saydam was born on 15 September 1929 in Istanbul and died there of heart failure on 25 October 2000, at 71. He began as a stage actor in 1946, entered film as an assistant four years later, and started directing his own films in 1957; he drew notice with the Samim Kocagöz adaptation Kalpaklılar (1959) and launched Turkish cinema's "drawing-room comedy" trend with his Küçük Hanımefendi series.

Over a career of more than four decades he wrote or directed over 120 films, working for long stretches as the house director for Acar Film, and brought literary adaptations such as Buzlar Çözülmeden, Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu and Sarmaşık Gülleri to the screen. He won both Best Director and Best Second Film at the 1973 Golden Orange festival for Dinmeyen Sızı, received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997, and also acted in a handful of films.

At the time of his death he was set to direct an adaptation of Reşat Nuri Güntekin's Akşam Güneşi for a joint TRT and Directors' Association project; he died the day before filming was to begin. After funeral prayers at Teşvikiye Mosque, he was buried at Aşiyan Cemetery.