Semih Kaplanoğlu

Semih Kaplanoğlu — Biography

Semih Kaplanoğlu is one of the Turkish directors best known on the international festival circuit, an auteur who writes and directs his films and often produces and edits them too. He is most associated with the Yusuf Trilogy of Yumurta (Egg), Süt (Milk) and Bal (Honey); Bal won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2010. Lately he has added a second trilogy, the Bağlılık films, and theatre directing.

After graduating in cinema and television from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dokuz Eylül University, he spent a while as an advertising copywriter in Istanbul and worked as a camera assistant on Süha Arın's documentaries. In 1994 he wrote and directed the 52-episode television series Şehnaz Tango. His first feature, Herkes Kendi Evinde (2000), earned the Best Director prize in Singapore; Meleğin Düşüşü (2004) was shown in Berlin and named best film at the Nantes, Kerala and Barcelona festivals. The trilogy opened with Yumurta (2007), which played in Cannes and took best film at the Antalya Golden Orange, and Süt (2008) competed in Venice. Buğday (2017) then won best film in Tokyo, and Bağlılık Aslı (2019) and Bağlılık Hasan (2021), which had its world premiere at Cannes, form the new trilogy. Bağlılık Hasan was put forward among Turkey's Oscar hopefuls.

From 1987 to 2003 he wrote essays on the plastic arts and cinema and kept a column in the newspaper Radikal. In 2022 he staged Mehmet Baydur's Limon, and in 2025 Kuşdili, for the Istanbul State Theatre.