Semih Kaplanoğlu

Semih Kaplanoğlu — Biography

Born Hasan Semih Kaplanoğlu, he came into the world in İzmir on 4 April 1963 and graduated in 1984 from the Cinema-TV department of Dokuz Eylül University's Faculty of Fine Arts. He started out as a copywriter in advertising, at agencies including Young & Rubicam, Saatchi & Saatchi and Güzel Sanatlar, before he became a camera assistant to director Süha Arın on the documentaries "Eski Evler-Eski Ustalar" and "Mimar Sinan"; between 1987 and 2003 he also wrote on the plastic arts and cinema for magazines such as Gergedan, Gösteri, Cumhuriyet and Sanat Dünyamız, and penned the column "Karşılaşmalar" for Radikal from 1996 to 2000.

His only television series as director, Şehnaz Tango (1994), was followed by his debut feature Herkes Kendi Evinde (2000), which won Best Director at the Singapore festival. Meleğin Düşüşü (2004) screened at Berlinale and picked up prizes on the festival circuit. He earned international acclaim with the "Yusuf Trilogy" — Yumurta (2007), Süt (2008) and Bal (2010) — the last of which took the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin Film Festival. Often mentioned alongside Nuri Bilge Ceylan, he is counted among Turkish cinema's best-known directors.

Buğday (2017) was named best film at the Tokyo festival; he then began a new trilogy with Bağlılık Aslı (2019) and Bağlılık Hasan (2021), which premiered at Cannes and became Turkey's Oscar submission. In 2022 and 2025 he staged the plays LİMON and KUŞDİLİ for the Istanbul State Theatre. He has been married to the journalist and writer Leyla İpekçi since 1999.