Biography

Tayfun Pirselimoğlu (born 1959, Trabzon) is a Turkish director, screenwriter and producer. Pirselimoglu graduated from Middle East Technical University after which he went to Vienna and studied painting at Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst (Academy of Applied Arts) He held various exhibitions in different cities of the world, including Vienna, Istanbul, Ankara, Budapest, Tallinn, etc. He is one of the founders of the independent art initiative of Akademie Genius which he lectured on scriptwriting, cinema, and painting. He also conducted workshops on film making in Wien, Athens, Ankara, etc. Pirselimoglu wrote six novels(Tales from the Desert, Album of the Missing Persons, Melancholia, Towers of the City, Kerr and the Barber) and three storybooks (Rooms of the Hotels, The Newest Lives of Harry Lime and Other Side of the Desert). He started his film career as a scriptwriter and wrote various scripts of shorts and features. He directed his first short film 'Dayim' (My Uncle) in 1999 and then 'Il Silenzio e d'Oro' (Silent is Golden) in 2002; both have received numerous international awards. In 2002 he also shot 'Hiçbiryerde' (In Nowhereland), his first feature film supported by Eurimages which has also received many awards. He shot the trilogy of 'conscience and death' including 'Riza' (Riza) 2007 premiered in Berlinale Forum, 'Pus' (Haze) 2009 premiered as well in Berlinale Forum, and 'Saç' (Hair) 2010 premiered in Locarno FF, all awarded. SIDEWAY (2017) premiered in Warsaw and has received 6 awards by many festivals. The shooting of his last feature film, adapted from the book named Kerr, was completed in 2020.