Uğur Polat

Two historical incidents that deepened the friendship between Japan and Turkey are connected in this story of friendship and compassion: In the night of 16 September 1890 the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul is caught up in a typhoon and sinks off the Japanese coast. Risking their own lives, local villagers are able to rescue 69 Turkish sailors. Although being very poor and having hardly to eat, the villagers share what little they have with strangers from a country 9,000 kilometers away. 95 years later, during the Iran-Iraq War, more than 300 Japanese are stranded in Tehran. In the morning of 19 March 1985 a Turkish Airlines aircraft takes off for Tehran to evacuate the Japanese. But the remaining Turks at Tehran Mehrabad Airport still need to be convinced that they won't be able to board their own country's rescue flight.

Two Turkish brothers find themselves on opposite sides of the political fence. When one of the brothers is murdered, the boys' father suspects that his surviving son was instrumental in the killing. Celebrated film director Elia Kazan returns to his acting roots in a key supporting role.

The story of a man who believes he's been presented with a new life where he witnesses his son's resurrection.

Aziz and Lemi must recover a diamond gifted by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to the U.S. President which has been stolen by bandits in the American wild west.

Nazlı, the daughter of a wealthy family, goes on vacation and falls in love with a captain who works on boats in Bodrum. The man she falls in love with is actually a young archaeologist living a bohemian lifestyle. Despite their families' objections, the young couple refuses to give up on their goal of marrying and consummating their passionate love. However, a bitter surprise soon befalls Nazlı and her husband...

The suspicious deaths began with the information obtained by MTA engineer Ömer Uçar, who has been a friend of Governor Faruk Yazıcı since childhood, and his colleagues regarding the rich uranium deposit in the region. And the hidden and overt powers behind capital that want this system to continue…

Cazibe is a woman in her late thirties, who has never got married or had a relationship with a man in her life. She lives with her old mother and her uncle who feels an attraction towards her. The lonely woman, whose only existence is her small room, spends all her time in this old room, dreaming and fantasising about her ex-lover.

During the period of the Wealth Tax, where many non-Muslims in Turkey were forced to pay higher taxes, often in an arbitrary and unrealistic way. Nimet and Durmuş migrate from Niğde to Istanbul and take shelter with Durmuş's friend Bekir, who finds Durmuş a job at the inn. However, making a living by serving as a porter is not in line with Durmuş's ambitions. He wants everything Halit Bey has, the inn owner. Halit Bey begins to dispose of his property in order to pay the tax stipulated to his beloved wife Nora, who was treated in a nursing home. Wealth Tax has begun to affect everyone's destiny.

Ali is a young man whose life passes as a routine between his house and the little shop he owns. Everything changes when she meets Zeynep, a girl who's recently moved to the neighbourhood.

Summer Love is a 2001 Turkish drama film directed and written by Barış Pirhasan with Gül Dirican.

Thirtysomething Suat still lives with his parents and works at his father's store when not practicing as goalie for the local football team, Esnaf Spor. The neighborhood's greatest wish is for Esnaf Spor to win the amateur league championship.

Due to the war in Bosnia, Sevgi is sent by her family to live with relatives on a desolate hill in Anatolia, where she receives a very cold welcome. There is a strange tension among the inhabitants of the house. Sevgi begins to investigate the cause of the screams she hears at night. Meanwhile, she has fallen secretly in love with the eldest son of the house.

An unforgettable love that overcomes all obstacles, even time, distance and falling apart.

Akın's life, who lived with a father he didn't like and a sick mother, changed after he lost his mother. He plans to start a new life with the money he steals from the carpentry workshop where he works. When his girlfriend Deniz dismisses this dream as ridiculous and leaves him, he accepts an offer from his friend İdris. This offer involves working as a foot soldier for a mafia group.

Fog and the Night is the search of an investigator who has lost his confidence in his organization and whose happy "family father" order has been disrupted by his young lover.And introverted man due to his profession, not a big talker or well in expressing his feelings, Sedat is being consumed, going through the hardest time of his life, not able to silence his guilty conscience because he was unsuccessful in solving the murder of his partner, whom he saw as a brother. His faith in his organization is shaken as he witnesses the schemes in machination inside the organization and between the organization and the state. Meanwhile, while trying to find his lover who has disappeared after falling for a former militant, he does not refrain from making use of the filthiest methods of his profession.

At Turkey’s oldest zoo, a lonely manager and a neglected female officer form an unlikely bond: as they hide the death of the zoo’s oldest inhabitant, an Anatolian leopard, in order to stop the privatization process and fake its escape, they set in motion an absurd charade that spins out of control. In Turkey’s grey and quiet capital, the ghost of the leopard persists.

Necati is a 33 year old man who's passionate for cinema. He has lost his mother just after he was born and his father is an odd fisherman nicknamed "Newton". Necati's biggest dream is to complete his film "Gravity Zero" which he endeavors to shoot by using a home camera and show it to an audience on a cinema screen. The film he presented as "an experimental picture that will rock Europe" runs on no script nor does it incorporate any professional actors. Unexpected circumstances come to life when Necati is on the verge of realizing his dream will leave him alone in the midst of a Mafia pay-off and give birth to results that will affect the lives of the people around him.

The beloved poet of Turkey, Nazım Hikmet, is featured on the silver screen for the period he spent in prison after 1941. Imprisoned for communist propaganda, Nazım became legendary within the prison walls as his fame grew by word of mouth. A group of friends formed around him, inspired by his poetry and painting. However, the only thing on Nazım Hikmet's mind was his wife, Piraye. He was very curious about his wife, from whom he had not heard for a long time. As the misery of the war years made itself felt, the devastating news for Nazım was not long in coming. His 28-year prison sentence was confirmed.

In the years of military coup, Turkey was unable to produce its own cars. But Pasha believed that Turkish people can produce their own cars so he ordered 2 cars. Gunduz and engineers with him must produce 2 cars in only 130 days!

A story describing Turkish narcotic police team named "Pars" who are trailing the traffic through Afghanistan, Turkey, Europe and USA.

Inhospitable at the best of times, the snow-covered mountainscapes of Eastern Anatolia constituted a fatal frontier for many war exiles after the battle of Sarikamish in 1915, and provides a canvas laced with beauty and threat for this bone-chilling survival yarn, the superb debut feature of Alphan Eşeli. Starting out with three characters – a refugee mother and daughter and their grizzled guide – the film traces their daunting trek across this barren terrain to safety, with the Russians encroaching and other stragglers, including a pair of wounded, frostbitten Ottoman soldiers, all orbiting the same burnt-out village they find in their path. Puncturing its aura of ghostly impasse with some shocking narrative reversals, and constantly prickling with the mutual dread of strangers in gruelling extremes, the movie stakes out hugely credible ground next to established Eastern Front war classics (In the Fog, Come and See) while remaining thoroughly its own beast. (Source: LFF programme)

Tamer, reliant on friends to navigate life, Aslı, aimless and living with family while tending to a sick neighbor, and Celil, an ordinary caregiver emotionally detached but devoted to his patients until death, cross paths in a poignant exploration of interdependence and survival.

Ceylin is a fierce, rule-bending defence attorney whose father was wrongly imprisoned — for her, justice always comes before the law. Ilgaz is a by-the-book prosecutor who believes the two are the same thing. When his brother is accused of murder, he has no choice but to go to her for help. What follows is a gripping cat-and-mouse legal thriller built on brilliant opposing chemistry — winner of the International Emmy for Best Telenovela in 2023.

Devran, a mathematical prodigy, has made a groundbreaking discovery in his doctoral thesis. He plans to go to U.S with his childhood love, Esme, after getting a university scholarship. However, the only person Devran wants to impress with this success is his father Iskender, who abandoned his family years ago. While protecting his family from Iskender, Devran struggles to stop his younger brother, Boran, from getting involved with their father, who already has plans for Boran. Devran’s plans have to change after Boran enters Iskender’s world.

Epic independence fight in 21st century. Turkish independence war against occupying forces (Greece, England, France, Italy) in her land.

When Olcay's husband commits suicide and leaves a huge debt behind, Olcay and her teenage daughter, Duru, are forced to move to a slum in Istanbul. They find themselves financially dependent on Olcay's only remaining friend, so Olcay starts to look for a job. Without any degree or experience, she tries to survive doing all sorts of odd jobs. Meanwhile, her neighbors, who are completely different from the people in Olcay's old world, begin to get to like the mother and daughter. Some even fall in love.

Kandemir is the head of a gang which conducts robberies. Their main goal is to rob fairly. What connects the members of the gang to one another is friendship. Unfortunately, everything changes after an old friend of Kandemir, Ali Rıza Kaptan’s goes to prison. Kandemir and the gang settle into an old neighborhood which seems quiet and peaceful. However, nothing is as how it seems in the neighborhood. They introduce themselves to their neighbors as the Nevizade family. Protagonists Kandemir, Ferdi, Karlos, Yaren, Bahadır and Derya have had hard times and when they gather under one roof these gang members still carry the traces of those hard times. Kandemir wishes to confront his daughter and show her that he is no longer a man of monkey business, while blood brothers Ferdi and Karlos who ran away from an orphanage still carry the misery of the streets; Yaren who came to İstanbul with the hope of being a famous singer is singing in taverns; Bahadır uses his genius for hacking computers and Derya joins the gang with her acting skills in order to save her father.

After a plane crash, a devoted wife learns that her life and marriage is all a lie.

Kartal is an orphan who is raised by Aziz the man who killed his father. Kartal married Aziz's daughter Esra but falls to Selin and feels obligated to leaves her.

A look into relationships in a neighborhood in Istanbul.

What is happening in Istanbul's back streets? Which lives are flowing, in the shadow of poverty? Women, gypsies, transvestites, street children each are victims of another discrimination. A typical Black Sea family connected to each other will meet with people who are trying to cling to the loneliness of life in this neighborhood where they will be forced to survive after their migration to Istanbul.

Istanbul - In this city of 20 million, crime is endless sin too. Some will sin, others will cover them. Ali Kemal, who forgot his own truth to cover the lies of others, will face his own reality when he falls in love.

Dip / The Deep (2018) is a Turkish PuhuTV psychological thriller (8 episodes) starring İlker Kaleli and Neslihan Atagül. Sahir, a haunted police psychiatrist who talks people down from suicide, is still tormented by the ghost of his late wife Ekin. When a mysterious message connects him to scientist Bilge, the two are pulled into a dark conspiracy of suspicious suicides and dangerous secrets from the past.

Follows a 350 year old virgin vampire who falls in love with a human.