Feriha "Feri" Cansel (7 July 1944 – 2 September 1983) was a

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( or ; ) are so called ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots are mainly Sunni Muslims. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers were given land onc ...

actress. She was born in

Lefkoşa Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capita ...

(

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

and spent her early youth in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, acquiring

British citizenship The primary law governing nationality in the United Kingdom is the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force on 1 January 1983. Regulations apply to the British Islands, which include the UK itself (England, Wales, Scotland, and Nor ...

and she became a

hairdresser A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A hairdresser may also be re ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Once settled in Turkey, she also obtained Turkish citizenship, marrying for convenience the

janitor A cleaner, cleanser or cleaning operative is a type of Industry (economics), industrial or domestic worker who is tasked with cleaning a space. A janitor (Scotland, United States and Canada), also known as a custodian, Facility Operator, porter ...

of the block of apartments in İstanbul where she lived concluding for that purpose. She started in show business as a stage

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at private events. Modern forms of stripping m ...

, and she appeared in her first film in 1964. She was the mother of actress Zümrüt Cansel.

Career

She started her acting career with secondary roles in

Turkish cinema Cinema of Turkey or Turkish cinema (also formerly known as ''Yeşilçam'', which literally means ''Green Pine'' in Turkish language, Turkish), () or Türk sineması refers to the Turkish film industry, film art and industry. It is an importa ...

's mainstream movies, and who attained fame after she started to appear in ''seks filmleri'', a particular genre of which had developed in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

in the mid-1970s to last until the eve of the 1980s. Her name became synonymous with the then rising wave of films of the genre, with a much reduced story line and a soft- to mid-

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

pornographical content arranged to match the tastes of local audiences often disguised as

comedy films The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the olde ...

. According to the Sinematürk database of Turkish films, Feri Cansel's career spanned 18 years during which she acted in 136 films. 120 of these films can be categorized as belonging in the

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

line. Cansel herself, on the other hand, claimed in 1978 that she had by then appeared in 350 erotic movies. Both figures could make Cansel win the career-long title for the highest number of erotic Turkish movies made by any actor/actress. The difference between the two figures is explained by the extensive practice at the time by the film producers, who viewed films that were shot not as parts of a single work but merely as source material for production of multiple films, to cut and paste. Erotic scenes, especially, were often cut and pasted to assemble new films from various parts of existing ones. This peculiar practice was called "parça" (''literally the "fragment"''), and the term was extended into the

movie theaters A movie theater (American English) or cinema (Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business that contains auditoriums for viewing fi ...

themselves to include the practice by the operators of inserting hardcore material, which was

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an most of the time, into Turkish "erotic" films. Cansel's liberal use of foul language in her films earned her the nickname of

Emmanuelle Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French erotic films based on the protagonist in the novel of the same name, by Emmanuelle Arsan, written in 1959 and published in 1967. Emmanuelle originated as the pen name ''Emmanuelle Arsan' ...

of Kasımpaşa, a popular quarter of Istanbul notorious for its peculiar speech rich in

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

. She was killed by her fiancé in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

in 1983. Cansel was survived by her daughter Zumrut Cansel who also embarked on a brief acting career after the murder of her mother.

References

External links

IMDb

Sinematürk database

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cansel, Feri People from Nicosia 1944 births 1983 deaths 20th-century Cypriot actresses Cypriot murder victims British people of Turkish Cypriot descent 20th-century Turkish actresses Cypriot film actresses People murdered in Turkey 1983 murders in Turkey