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The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies/Films Short Subjects, Documentaries, TV and Radio for English Speakers -- 'G' --
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| A Fatma Girik Movie PosterErkek Fatma (A Man Called Fatma) --directed by Ülkü Erakalın in 1969. Unable to find lucrative work as a woman, Gül (Fatma Girik) poses as a man. Click! |
Let us know if you enjoy our 'Movies Database' pages and film clips. We'll add more of them if you do...

For English-speakers who've always wanted to know more about Turkish Movies/Films, Short Subjects, Documentaries, TV and Radio -- but didn't know where to look. |
Movie/Film names and TV Program names (in both English and Turkish), stars of the Turkish cinema and TV (past and present), movie directors, producers, cameramen, screen writers, musicians, singers, dancers, et al -- not to mention plot summaries, movie trivia, and memorable on-screen dialogue all translated into English, of course... With full multimedia features including illustrations, voice recordings and video clips...
If you don't find the names, terms, or phrases you need here... click to let us know and we'll add them.
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Abbreviations:
LMA - Lead Male Actor/Player, LFA - Lead Female Actor/Player,
MA - Male Actor/Player, FA - Female Actor/Player,
MD - Main Director, P - Producer(s), C - Cinematographer, W - Screenplay Writer,
Dan - Dancer, M- Music by, AD - Art Director, PC - Production Company
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Name of Person, Place, Thing | Details About | Descriptions, examples, supplements, and explanations |
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Fatma Girik  Conventional-film and TV actress, producer, and screenwriter -- born 12 December 1942. Contemporaries Fatma Girik and Türkan Şoray shared a number of career and life choices... Among similar life-choices, both women devoted themselves to long-term relationships with married men -- as mistresses. In Şoray's case the married man was movie mogul Rüçhan Adlı. (Şoray later married actor Cihan Ünal and had a wayward daughter, Yağmur, by him.) In Girik's case, the married man was director Memduh Ün (now [in 2008] nearly 90 years of age) -- whose affect on Girik (now in her late 60s) was so great that she never married and never had children of her own.
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Fatma Girik in the Turkish Who's Who
Sexy Tomboy with talent to burn
Fatma Girik lolls invitingly on her round bed -- in a magazine photo-shoot from Hayat Dergisi in 1973.
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The jig is up for Fatma Girik... in Erkek Fatma (Man Called Fatma) directed by Ülkü Erakalın in 1969
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Fatma Girik Turkish Time Tunnel 1966-2005
 Click!Thanks to Gözcü Gasetesi 5 March 2005
Fatma Girik Filmography
Erkek Fatma (A Man Called Fatma) 1969 - starred Fatma Girik, Ahmet Üz, Ayfer Feray, Handan Adalı
Rabia (The Story of Rabia) 1973 - Girik gives a lively multi-dimensional performance in this real-life story of Rabia al-Adawiyya, the first Islamic female saint.
More coming...
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Melek Görgün  Born 19 January 1949 in Adana. Melek Görgün made 95 movies (both conventional and erotik) in a film career that spanned more than 10 years (1967 to 1978).
Melek Görgün in a publicity photo from the 1970s
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Melek Görgün starred with Cüneyt Arkın and Meral Zeren in Battal Gazi Destanı (Legend of Battal Gazi), a conventional historical film made in 1971.
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Melek Görgün starred with Salih Güney and Erol Taş in Acı Pirinç (Bitter Rice), a conventional film made in 1972.
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Angelic or Wanton? Melek Görgün gained early fame in dandik Turkish films [like Mete Han Amazonlara Karşı (King Mete vs. The Amazons) and Dişi Akrep (Female Scorpion)] of the late 1960s and early 1970s -- in which her large high-tipped breasts attracted a good deal of attention.
But, because Melek Görgün had the versatility to portray both 'nice girls' and vamps, she successfully followed up those fantastik films, with roles in a variety of genres -- which added to her 'serious' acting credentials. Still, Melek Görgün easily made the switch to erotik films when they became 'fashionable' after 1972 -- and was a big success throughout the softcore stage of the seks furyası age. But when she sensed the coming of hardcore film-making, she got weak in the knees and, after making one last film in 1978 Hayat Kadınları (Street-Working Women) she left the business for good.
Melek Görgün starred with Hadi Çaman and Karaca Kaan in Fırçana Bayıldım Boyacı in 1978. But you'd hardly know it from the movie-cover below, which shows Hadi Çaman beside Emel Canser, Zafir Seba (R), and another actress (L) that we can't yet identify -- in scenes from an entirely different film.
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Melek Görgün's Filmography:
Conventional Films --
Battal Gazi Destanı (The Legend of Battal Gazi) 1971 -- starring Cüneyt Arkın in a dual role as both Hüseyin Gazi [father] and Battal Gazi [son]. With Kerim Afşar (Emperor Leon), Fikret Hakan (first, as the Byzantine super-warrior Hammer and, later, as Ahmet [left], after his conversion to Islam, facilitated by Cüneyt Arkın as Battal Gazi [right]). Fikret Hakan debuted this series of legend-based adventure movies in Battal Gazi Geliyor (Battal Gazi Is Coming) in 1955. The 1971 rendition also starred Meral Zeren (Elonara, the [apparent] daughter of Emperor Leon), Aynur Akarsu (in a cameo-role as Hammer's luscious camp-following girlfriend), Reha Yurdakul (Hileryon), Erden Alkan (Alyon), Ali Taygun (Byzantine Army Commander Tolemon), Tevfik Şen (Byzantine Soldier) -- and Melek Görgün as the angelic nun, İrene. Produced by Memduh Ün, co-written by Ayşe Şasa and Atıf Yılmaz, directed by Atıf Yılmaz.
Plot Summary: The story of Battal Gazi who swears revenge for his father's death at the hands of Byzantine raiders -- and of the Byzantine war-veteran, Hammer, who comes to accept Islam (changing his name to Ahmet in the process).
Plot Details: Battal Gazi (Cüneyt Arkın) is smitten with Elonara (Meral Zeren) and she with him but there's a problem with that...because she's (apparently) the daughter of Battal Gazi's sworn enemy, Byzantine Emperor Leon (Kerim Afşar), who was responsible for the brutal killing of Hüseyin Gazi, Battal Gazi's father.
In this movie-scene-clip [a 2.1 MB Windows Media Video (.WMV) file], the lovers' rendezvous goes awry. Princess Elenora (Meral Zeren), disguised as a too-shapely Byzantine soldier, sets out to meet Battal Gazi (Cüneyt Arkın)...with the blessing of the nun, İrene (Melek Görgün). When Elenora is quickly recognized and captured, she's placed into custody -- but treated respectfully. The nun İrene is not so lucky...being first tortured savagely by Byzantine commander Alyon (Erden Alkan) and then offered up as a gift to the randy Byzantine
army corps...
Acı Pirinç (Bitter Rice) -- starring Salih Güney (Selim), Erol Taş (The Cruel Aga), Mine Sun (real name: Bilgay Karadayı), Engin Tara -- and Melek Görgün as Ayşe, directed by Yılmaz Duru in 1972. Melek Görgün Acı Pirinç 1972
 Click! | Plot: This film is a loose adaptation of the Italian film Riso Amaro (Le Riz Amer in this French movie-poster) that starred Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman, was written and directed by Giuseppe De Santis, produced by Dino De Laurentiis -- which was nominated for the 1950 Academy Award for Best Story. In the Turkish-version of Bitter Rice a group of destitute women work for slave wages in the rice fields of a cruel land-baron Ağa (Erol Taş). One of the women, Melek Görgün, catches the eye of the Aga's rebellious son (Engin Tara) and when he finds her alone in the make-shift women's bathing room, he makes a move on her -- as shown in this 1.4 MB Windows Media Video (.WMV) file. A few days later, Melek Görgün finds Salih Güney wounded and hiding in the underbrush, trying to avoid capture by the Aga's men. They have already killed his sister, and now want to kill Güney too -- as the final act to seizing his land. Görgün manages to hide Güney in a nearby cave and she begins to care for his bullet-wound -- and as she nurses him back to health, over several weeks, the two fall in love.
To be continued...
Erotik Films --
Fırçana Bayıldım Boyacı (I Like The Way You Brush, Shoeshine Boy) aka Erkeklik Öldü Mü Abiler? (Is Masculinity Dead, Guys?) -- starring Hadi Çaman, Karaca Kaan, Enver Çokgör, Esra Sayın, Sami Hazinses, Kudret Şandra, Yüksel Gözen, Aylin Berkay, Kamer Baba/Kamer Sadık, and Melek Görgün. Plot: The leader (Enver Çokgör) of a gang of con-artists hatches a plan to dupe a lowly shoe-shine-boy (Hadi Çaman) who closely resembles Melek Görgün's wealthy husband. More plot with pics and film-clips -- continued on Catalog Page 'F'...
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Gülden Gül  Erotik film actress 1978-79, Gülden Gül was apparently the protégé of Yavuz Figenli (real surname: Özfigenli) who directed Gül in each of her first 6 films -- of 9 films total in her entire career.
Gülden Gül plays Katya, a hot-blooded Byzantine seductress in Ölüm Savaşı (Fight to the Death) directed by Yavuz Figenli in 1978. | | |
Gülden Gül seduces Kazım Kartal (left) to learn location of Kartal's money cache for her true-love Tevfik Şen (right) -- in Püsküllü Bela (A Peck Of Trouble) aka Dilberim Kıyma Bana (Make Mince-Meat Of Me, Beautiful) directed by Çetin İnanç in 1979. | | |
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A dark-haired pouty-faced beauty who left a mark on the seks furyası era despite her abbreviated film career. In second-banana roles on-screen, Gülden Gül gave the impression of being shrewdly intelligent and manipulative -- ready to 'play both ends against the middle' for her own personal pleasure or financial gain. Such was the role she played (in Ölüm Savaşı) as Katya, the Byzantine princess who plots (unsuccessfully) against her Byzantine prince (played by Ata Saka) in hopes of running off with the dashing young Kafkasyalı (Behçet Nacar). She also acted in such a role for Püsküllü Bela, in which she used her lithesome embraceable body to good effect on gangster Kazım Kartal -- in order to learn the whereabouts of Kartal's secret cache of booty. She then passed the info to her real lover, Kartal's rival, Tevfik Sen -- but, in this movie too, her best laid plans went awry.
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Always a brides-maid, never a bride... Gülden Gül's Complete Second-Banana Erotik Filmography:
Kene (Tick), starring Behçet Nacar, Kazım Kartal, and Gülden Gül -- a dramatic adventure film directed by Yavuz Figenli, 1978. The story of a man who is drawn into conflict with gecekondo gang-leaders.
Ölüm Savaşı (Fight To The Death), starring Dilber Ay, Behçet Nacar, and Gülden Gül -- a dramatic adventure film directed by Yavuz Figenli, 1978. A 4-man band of Kafkasyalı gazis do battle with powerful Byzantine military forces in the 14th century. Click following link to view commented scenes from the movie on the Fantastik Dilber Ay page, in left hand column.
Korkak Kahraman (Cowardly Hero), starring Bülent Kayabaş, Figen Han, and Gülden Gül -- a dramatic adventure film directed by Yavuz Figenli, 1978. When a photographer is eye-witness to murder, his troubles begin.
Azrailin Beş Atlısı (Five Horsemen Of Azrail), directed by Yavuz Figenli, 1978.
Aklın Neredeydi (What Were You Thinking?), directed by Yavuz Figenli, 1978.
Zeynel İle Veysel (Zeynel And Veysel), -- an erotik comedy directed by Yavuz Figenli, 1978.
Kahbe (Harlot), directed by Aykut Düz, 1979.
İhtiras Kurbanları (Victim of Desire), starring Zerrin Doğan, Tevfik Şen, and Gülden Gül -- directed by Aykut Düz, 1979. The story of an aspiring violinist who uses her feminine wiles to advance her career.
Püsküllü Bela (A Peck Of Trouble) aka Dilberim Kıyma Bana (Make Mince-Meat Of Me, Beautiful), starring Dilber Ay, Kazım Kartal, and Gülden Gül -- directed by Çetin İnanç,
1979. Dilber Ay gets into a peck of trouble when she is accidentally an eye-witness to murder, committed by Kazım Kartal.
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Reşat Nuri Güntekin
| A 'Core' Turkish Fiction Writer, who wrote 19 novels (starting 1923, such as: Yaprak Dökümü), 14 stage-plays (starting 1920), including posthumous productions -- and one travel book, Anadolu Notları (Anatolian Notes) in 1936.
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Biographical Highlights: Güntekin was born in 1889, the son of Lütfiye Hanım, the daughter of the Mayor of Erzurum, Yaver Paşa. He completed his education and obtained his degree in 1912 from the Literature Department of Istanbul Darülfünün (which became known as Istanbul University in 1933, as part of Atatürk's educational reforms).
He first published a play in 1920, but kept his day job... Until 1927 he was an English and French teacher at many of Turkey's best-known educational institutions of that era, including: Bursa Secondary School (Sultanısı), Istanbul Beşiktaş Union (İttihat) and Terakki School (Mektebi), The Fatih Charitable Great School (Vakf-ı Kebir Mektebi,) Akşemseddin School (Mektebi), Feneryolu Murad-ı Hâmis School (Mektebi), Osman Gazi Paşa School (Mektebi), Vefa Secondary School (Sultanısı), İstanbul Boys High School (Erkek Lisesi), Çamlıca Girl's School (Kız Lisesi), Kabataş Boys High School (Erkek Lisesi), Galatasaray High School (Lisesi) and Erenköy Girl's High School (Kiz Lisesi). Even while he worked full-time, he published 6 novels and 4 plays during this time period.
In 1927 he became an Inspector for the Education Ministry and in 1939 he ran for and won a seat in Parliament representing Çanakkale. He remained a member of Parliament until 1946 -- and managed to write and publish 7 novels and 3 plays in his spare time during that portion of his active life.
In 1947, he established Memleket Newspaper in Istanbul, a branch of Ulus Newspaper published by the CHP political Party in Ankara. He then returned to his work as an Education Inspector and in 1950 he was the Turkish representative for UNESCO in Paris. He published 2 novels in 1953.
He was forced to retire in 1954 due to ill health. But even in retirement, he served as Advisor to the Istanbul Theater Literary Committee.
After receiving treatment for lung cancer, Güntekin went to London (of all places, for someone with lung cancer!) where his illness became worse. He died in London on 13 December 1956 and is buried at the Karacaahmet Cemetery in Üsküdar, Istanbul.
Even after death, his works continued to find an audience. Three of his previously unknown novels were published in 1961-1962 and his plays (including Yaprak Dökümü - Shedding Leaves) were still being stage-produced in 1971.
Yaprak Dökümü was made into a movie in both 1958 and 1967...and it was as TV Series in 1987 and 2006-2007 (and will return for a second season in 2007-2008).
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Aysel Gürel Born 1928, passed away Sunday, 17 February 2008.  Song writer, actress, feminist and individualist...and the gadabout mother of actress Müjde Ar.
Aysel Gürel Time Tunnel photos from 1979 and 2005
 Click!Thanks to Gözcü Gazetesi 2005
Aysel Gürel Advanced in years, but still kickin'...
 Click!Thanks to komikdunya.com
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Also see: the Aysel Gürel entry in the Turkish Who's Who.
The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane
'Brazen' was her middle name... Aysel Gürel was guest of honor on stage at a Sezen Aksu concert in March 2004. Dressed in a revealing mini-skirt, Gürel began giving casual frikiklar to photographers, from her seated position. When the unsuspecting Aksu warned, 'Be careful, you're exposed down there,' Gürel's reaction was to stand up and brazenly lift her skirt all the way up, as far as it would go. She was 76 years young at the time...
 Click!Thanks to Gözcü Gazetesi 10 March 2004
Aysel Gürel with daughters Kâmile Suat Ebrem ( Müjde Ar) at right and Mehtap Ebrem (L) in the 1960s.
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Aysel Gürel and daughter Müjde Ar 'live chatting' for photographers in the 1970s.
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Aysel Gürel Loved To Shock In Public
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The Notorious Pepsi Max TV Commercials You may recall the first Pepsi Max No-Sugar TV-commercial that Aysun Kayacı made in the spring of 2007, which raised such a ruckus. Well... she made another one with Aysel Gürel, which aired in February 2008, just days before the grande dame was taken to hospital, never to return. In this second commercial, Kayacı plays a patrol-car cop who pulls a group of young men over to the side of the road. She asks the driver if he's been drinking...anything with sugar in it. He says, 'No' -- but Cop Kayacı won't take his word for it and insists on a deep-throat Kissing Test that leaves the driver breathless. Kayacı then licks her lips to confirm the truth, and calls out to her partner in the patrol-car, "Hey Mom, I can't detect any sugar." With that, the patrol-car window descends to reveal wizened cop-partner Aysel Gürel, who calls out, "What's that? No sugar, you say? Wait a second. I'd better check it myself." As she opens the car door to come administer her own test, the camera pans back to the driver's now-despairing face -- and we hear Aysun Kayacı's voice in the background saying, "Pepsi Max, Zero Sugar, Maximum Taste." The film-clip of this Pepsi Max commercial (with Aysel Gürel) is a 1 MB Windows Media Video (.WMV) file.
Aysel Gürel Still smiling at the end of the line, with daughter Müjde Ar...
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We are extremely grateful to the following people for their Turkish-language source material on which much in the cinema sections of the 'Turkish Movies, etc. Catalog' is based: Cihan Demirci, Metin Demirhan, Giovanni Scognamillo, and Ağah Özgüç. We also extend special thanks to the content providers and webmasters at the following Turkish websites: Sinematurk.com, Telifhaklari.gov.tr, Turksinemasi.net, FotoAjans.com, Superresim.com, and Kimkimdir.gen.tr
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