Sinan Çetin

Sinan Çetin — Biography

Sinan Çetin was born on 1 March 1953 in the Bahçesaray district of Van, one of eight children of customs officer Mehdi Bey and Şevket Hanım; he is of Azeri descent on his mother's side and Georgian on his father's. His father's postings meant his early schooling moved through several Anatolian towns before the family settled in Ankara, where after Gazi High School he studied pharmacy briefly and then art history at Hacettepe University, graduating in 1977; through the 1970s he worked in painting, photography and graphic design, holding his own exhibitions.

He entered cinema in 1975 as an assistant to Zeki Ökten on Hanzo, then worked with Şerif Gören and Atıf Yılmaz, directed the documentaries Baskın and Halı Türküsü in 1977, and made his feature debut in 1980 with Bir Günün Hikâyesi, which won him best director at the 1982 Antalya Film Festival while its lead, Nur Sürer, took best actress. Films such as Çiçek Abbas, 14 Numara, Çirkinler de Sever and Berlin in Berlin (1993), Turkey's highest-grossing film to that point, followed, and his libertarian-tinged Propaganda and Komser Şekspir became major box-office successes; Berlin in Berlin's star, Hülya Avşar, won best actress at the Moscow International Film Festival while Çetin himself was nominated for best director there.

Through his company Plato Film he has produced his own work and that of other directors, and through his own publishing house issued Turkish translations of thinkers such as Ayn Rand and Karl Popper. He married cinematographer Rebekka Haas, with whom he has three children, and in 2025 was sued for royalties by actress Müjde Ar.