Zeynel Doğan

Zeynel Doğan — Biography

Zeynel Doğan was born on 10 October 1979 in Elbistan, the son of a father who worked as a labourer in Saudi Arabia; because the family could not read or write, they exchanged cassette recordings of their voices with him instead of letters. After studying communications in Eskişehir, he worked at a local Diyarbakır television channel and at the Diyarbakır Cinema Workshop, co-founded the initiative Perişan Film with Özgür Doğan and Orhan Eskiköy, and coordinated the Diyarbakır Media Center, which trains local youth in video production.

Drawing on his own family's cassette-tape story, he co-directed and starred in Babamın Sesi (Voice of My Father, 2012) with Orhan Eskiköy; the film premiered at Rotterdam and won Best Film at the Adana Golden Boll festival and Best Screenplay at the Istanbul Film Festival. He has also directed short films including Dışarıda Olmak (2008) and Sürgün (2010), as well as the documentary Voices of the City (2015), and now lives in Helsinki.