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Boğaziçi University Boğaziçi University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Boğaziçi Üniversitesi''), also known as Bosphorus University, is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey, historically tied to a former American educational insti ...

, alma_mater = , occupation =

Film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, film producer,

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, years_active = 2005-''present'' , employer =

Istanbul Technical University Istanbul Technical University, also known as Technical University of Istanbul (, commonly referred to as İTÜ), is an public university, public technical university located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the world's third-oldest technical university ...

, organization = , agent = , known_for = , notable_works = '' Beyond the Hill'' (2012)
'' Frenzy'' (2015)
''Burning Days'' (2022) , television = , movement = , opponents = , boards = , spouse = , partner = , children = , relatives = , family = , callsign = , awards = , website = , signature = , footnotes = Emin Alper (born 13 August 1974,

Karaman Karaman is a city in south central Turkey, located in Central Anatolia, north of the Taurus Mountains, about south of Konya. It is the seat of Karaman Province and Karaman District.Beyond the Hill'' won the Caligari Film Prize in the 62nd Berlinale and Best Film at the

Asia Pacific Screen Awards The Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) is an international cultural initiative overseen by the Asia Pacific Screen Academy and headquartered in Australia, sometimes called "Asia-Pacific Oscars". In order to realise UNESCO's goals of promoting a ...

. His second feature '' Frenzy'' won the Special Jury Prize after premiering in competition at the

72nd Venice International Film Festival The 72nd annual Venice Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, was held from 2 to 12 September 2015, at Venice Lido in Italy. Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón was the jury president for the main competition. French-Italian actress ...

Life

During his university years, Emin Alper was an active member of the cinema club at

, spending most of his time with friends thinking on and discussing about cinema. They would organize seminars with the prominent filmmakers of their time,

Nuri Bilge Ceylan Nuri Bilge Ceylan (; born 26 January 1959) is a Turkish director, screenwriter, photographer and actor. His film ''Winter Sleep (film), Winter Sleep'' (2014) won the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, 67th Cannes Film Festival, while s ...

and

Zeki Demirkubuz Zeki Demirkubuz (born 1 October 1964) is a contemporary Turkish people, Turkish film director, screenwriter, film producer, producer and film editor. Biography Demirkubuz dropped out of high school and started working in a textile workshop. He ...

. He began writing scripts and film reviews. Together with his friends, he published the film magazine “Görüntü.” It was during his university years that his lifelong love for cinema shaped, persuading him to pursue filmmaking as a career. After graduating from the university with a degree in Economics, Alper furthered his Academic work, receiving his PhD in Modern Turkish History. Emin Alper subsequently began teaching at the Department of Social Science at

. He wrote on cinema and politics at several magazines including ''Tarih ve Toplum'', '' Birikim'', ''Mesele'' and ''Altyazı''.

Career

Gaining experience from watching other filmmakers and taking role in their short films, Emin Alper went on to make his first independent short films, ''The Letter'' in 2005, and Rıfat in 2006; the latter won Best Short Film at the Bucharest International Film Festival (2008) and the Special Audience Award at the !F Istanbul International Film Festival. His breakthrough came in 2012, with his directorial debut, '' Beyond the Hill'', “about the repressed violence and projections of a Turkish family on holiday." Following his first feature, Alper made his second feature, ''Frenzy'' (2014), a psycho-social drama/thriller about a society“ brought to heel by its fear of terrorism” in which two brothers — one a paroled convict secretly recruited to ferret out terrorists by examining the contents of trash bins, the other hired to kill stray dogs — are sucked into a whirl of state-sponsored distrust. Frenzy was profoundly timely in its subject matter, loudly echoing the current turmoil of politics in Turkey and the Middle East. Alper says of Frenzy, ‘It shows how the political system turns “little men” into the cogs of its violent mechanism by providing them with authority and the instruments of violence, which in the end turn against them and lead to their destruction.’ Premiering in competition at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival, Frenzy was awarded the Special Jury Prize. The film won the Jury Grand Prize at the 9th

. Both ''Beyond the Hill'' and ''Frenzy'' were chosen as the Best Turkish Film by the Turkish Critics' Association in 2012 and 2015. In 2022 he released the film '' Burning Days (Kurak Günler)''.Stephanie Bunbury
"Cannes Review: Emin Alper’s ‘Burning Days’"
''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. It is updated several times a day, with en ...

'', May 26, 2022.

Influences

At 18, Emin Alper was stirred upon watching

Emir Kusturica Emir Kusturica ( sr-cyrl, Емир Кустурица, ; born 24 November 1954) is a Serbian film director, screenwriter, actor, film producer and musician. Kusturica has been an active filmmaker since the 1980s. He has competed at the Cannes ...

’s ''

Time of the Gypsies ''Time of the Gypsies'' ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Дом за вешање, Dom za vešanje, Home for Hanging) is a 1988 Yugoslav coming-of-age fantasy crime drama directed by Emir Kusturica. Filmed in Romani and Serbo-Croatian, ''Time of the Gypsies' ...

'', which made him, in his own words, “aware of the magic of cinema.” He is influenced by the works of

Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, theatre and opera director, and screenwriter. He was one of the fathers of Italian neorealism, cinematic neorealism, but later ...

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker, dramatist and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema moveme ...

and

Michael Haneke Michael Haneke (; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, Ge ...

. The storyline of Ahmet’s relation with the stray dog he adopts is inspired by

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

’s story A Man and His Dog.

Cinematic style

Through his analytical background and deep insight to Turkish history, Alper has developed a unique approach and style in filmmaking, gaining him widespread local and international recognition. Both ''Beyond the Hill'' (2012) and ''Frenzy'' (2015) feature sociological parables; a marked interest of Alper’s. In an interview at the Venice Film Festival, Alper defines his style as “paranoia and dream versus reality.” Boyd van Hoeij in the Hollywood Reporter mirrors the director’s cinematic signature, writing “Some of these might be subjective point-of-view shots, or dreams, nightmares or hallucinations...since the film’s real world isn't as clearly defined, with Istanbul really seeming to be in the grip of increasing chaos and paranoia...” Besides blurring the lines between dream and reality, Alper plays with color and texture, creating a sense of psychic claustrophobia, made all the more tangible by the sound work of conceptual Turkish musician Cevdet Erek.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alper, Emin 1974 births Turkish film directors Living people Ankara Science High School alumni Boğaziçi University alumni