About Istanbul Trilogy

Ferzan Özpetek’s Istanbul Trilogy explores the rich and deep-rooted tradition of raki banquets, where beautiful people who share life, cheer up or get sad, come together, with the unique beauty of Istanbul in the background, and comprises of three independent stories:

Meze: Life is disappointing sometimes. You might think you’re having your worst day.
But if you have close friends with whom you share your life, maybe that day is not as bad as you think… and maybe it is a day worth celebrating.

Muzik: A childhood memory that you didn’t care about at first can affect your destiny and your future. It can shape how you grow up, what you do, what kind of life you live. Sometimes life gets better with coincidences.

Muhabbet: Missing a person, a city, a friend, a lover is a heavy burden you always carry on your back. You try everything to satisfy the longing inside you. The longing never ends, but you learn to live with it.

Cast:

Meze: Ahsen Eroğlu, Serra Yılmaz, Ayta Sözeri, Aslı İnandık, Nezaket Erden, Oğulcan Arman Uslu, İpek Tuzcuoğlu, Burcu Gölgedar, Şirin Sultan Saldamlı;

Müzik: Burak Yamantürk, Yiğit Kirazcı, Sitare Akbaş, Ali Seçkiner Alıcı, Pınar Göktaş, Sezen Keser, Görkem Mertsöz, Saim Güveloğlu, Fırat Ege Uykan, Duygu Demir Sağlam, Fırat Küçüksarı, Taylan Dora Güven, Berkay Celal Çetin, Aden Lina;

Muhabbet: Kubilay Aka, Süreyya Güzel, Ahmet Kaynak, İdil Sivritepe, Emre Dinler, Özge Erdem, Aykut Yılmaz, Bahar Sili, Güney Yılmaz, Mehmet Ergenç

About Ferzan Ozpetek

He is a Turkish-Italian director, screenwriter and writer. In 1976, he first went to Perugia Foreigners University in Italy, learned Italian for a year, and then transferred to Rome La Sapienza University to study cinema. After completing his education there, he went to Accademia Navona and Accademia d’Arte Dramatica schools to study art history, costume and theater direction and took lessons from Silvio D’Amico. During this period, he worked with Julien Beck in various positions on the European tour of The Living Teather. In 1982, he was assistant director to Massimo Troisi in the film Scusate il Ritardo, and later to Maurizio Ponzi in the film Son Contento. Ferzan Özpetek worked as an assistant director for nearly 15 years with different directors such as Ricky Tognazzi, Lamberto Bava, Francesco Nuti, Sergio Citti, Giovanni Veronesi and Marco Risi.

American singer Madonna stated that Ferzan Özpetek was “a genius” in an interview with a television program. Özpetek received congratulations from names such as John Travolta and Andy Garcia after the screening of his 2009 film, Serseri Mayinlar, at the opening of the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Ferzan Özpetek served as the jury president of the committee consisting of actors Hülya Kocyigit, Zuhal Olcay, Aytac Arman, Kenan Isik and director Nuri Bilge Ceylan at the 42nd Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival held in 2005.

In 2007, he was a jury member at the 75th Venice Film Festival.