Turkan Soray

Turkey cinema is never short of its actresses. There were many women who were involved in movies and acted in countless movies which made them renown until this day. However, female directors are something that could be rarely found in the Turkish cinema. Many could never break out of their shell and get behind the camera. Turkan Soray is notone of them.

Being one of the most famous Turkish actresses, she played in over 200 movies since her first debut in 1960. Being a tough and ruling actress, she got the nickname "sultan". She was so much aware of her talent that she even made a set of rules which production companies had to obey in order to sign a contract with her. Some of which includes:

- Soray would have to like the script at least a month before the shoot, otherwise the script would have to be changed.

- Soray won't film any nude or kissing scene

- Soray's name would have to be on the top of the movie posters

This is just a background about her personality and her acting career. She never stopped acting until today, however she also directed 4 movies in her career as well. I chose her very first movie Donus(The Return) which came out in 1972 as my main topic because it's her most famous and critically acclaimed work.

Just by looking at the poster, we can see that Soray is not messing around with this movie. The first 3 rows of text reads:

Main Actress: Turkan Soray

Director: Turkan Soray

Producer: Turkan Soray

She has taken the full responsibility with her debut title. She not only directs the movie, she play the main role. The plot has written by a male writer: Serif Goren but the subject matter is something that Soray obviously observed and accepted. It's a about a couple whom Soray plays the wife in a very small urban village in Eastern Turkey. his husband and her buys a land but in order to maintain it, the husband goes to Germany as an immigrant worker(Which was common at the time) but soon the husband stops writing to her and the village folk start to harass her and start rumors.

She makes great use of the camera and the music in the movie. She handpicked the composer Yalcin Tura which the music sets the mood for the movie. She used the music to strike out the viewer in the most dramatic scenes. She uses jump cuts and other camera techniques to make an inpactful narrative.

Before the movie came out, many critics were doubtful about the success of the movie. The main reason was that in 1972, the term "female director" was rarely heard and women never really had any control over the movie that they've played. However, Soray wronged the critics and the movie had great reviews. It even earned her the Moscow Film Festival The Grand Jury Prize in 1973. In addition, many years later in 1999, she has won the best director award from Flying Broom Women's Film Festival, the first annual women's film festival in Turkey.

http://www.kameraarkasi.org/yonetmenler/t/turkansoray.html

http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrk%C3%A2n_%C5%9Eoray

http://www.sinematurk.com/film_genel/1173/Donus

http://www.ucansupurge.org/