Feri Cansel
Encyclopedia
Turkish Cypriots
Turkish Cypriots are the ethnic Turks and members of the Turkish-speaking ethnolinguistic community of the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The term is used to refer explicitly to the indigenous Turkish Cypriots, whose Ottoman Turkish forbears colonised the island in 1571...
actress.
She was born Lefkoşa (Nicosia
Nicosia
Nicosia from , known locally as Lefkosia , is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, as well as its main business center. Nicosia is the only divided capital in the world, with the southern and the northern portions divided by a Green Line...
), Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
and spent her early youth in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, acquiring British citizenship and she became a hairdresser
Hairdresser
Hairdresser is a term referring to anyone whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Once settled in Turkey, she also obtained Turkish citizenship, marrying for convenience the janitor
Janitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
of the block of apartments in İstanbul where she lived concluding for that purpose. She started in show business as a stage stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
, and she appeared in her first film in 1964.
Career
She started her acting career with secondary roles in Turkish cinema's mainstream movies, and who attained fame after she started to appear in seks filmleri, a particular genre of which had developed in TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
in the mid-1970s to last until the eve of the 1980s. Her name became synonymous with the then rising wave of films of the genre, with a much reduced story line and a soft- to mid-hardcore
Hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography is a form of pornography that features explicit sexual acts. The term was coined in the second half of the 20th century to distinguish it from softcore pornography. It usually takes the form of photographs, often displayed in magazines or on the Internet, or films. It can also...
pornographical
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
content arranged to match the tastes of local audiences often disguised as comedy films. In this regard, Feri Cansel held the same title as such other cult actresses of the time as Zerrin Egeliler, Arzu Okay, Zerrin Doğan and Figen Han.
According to the Sinematürk database of Turkish films, Feri Cansel's career spanned 18 years during which she acted in 136 films. 120 of these films can be categorized as belonging in the erotic line. Cansel herself, on the other hand, claimed in 1978 that she had by then appeared in 350 erotic movies. Both figures could make Cansel win the career-long title for the highest number of erotic Turkish movies made by any actor/actress.
The difference between the two figures is explained by the extensive practice at the time by the film producers, who viewed films that were shot not as parts of a single work but merely as source material for production of multiple films, to cut and paste. Erotic scenes, especially, were often cut and pasted to assemble new films from various parts of existing ones. This peculiar practice was called "parça" (literally the "fragment"), and the term was extended into the movie theaters themselves to include the practice by the operators of inserting hardcore material, which was Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an most of the time, into Turkish "erotic" films.
Cansel's liberal use of foul language in her films earned her the nickname of Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French softcore erotic movies based on a character created by Emmanuelle Arsan in the novel Emmanuelle...
of Kasımpaşa
Kasımpaşa (district)
Kasımpaşa is a quarter within the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Turkey. It is a low-lying area north of the Golden Horn in the European part of the city. Neighbouring quarters include Dolapdere and Kurtuluş.-History:...
, a popular quarter of Istanbul notorious for its for its peculiar speech rich in slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
.
She was killed by her fiancé in İstanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in 1983. Cansel was survived by her daughter İlter Özcan who is also an actress with the alias "Zümrüt Cansel
Zümrüt Cansel
Zümrüt Cansel is a Turkish Cypriot actress. Cansel is best known for her roles in the Yeşilçam films. She is the daughter of the famous Turkish Cypriot actress Feri Cansel.-Filmography:-External links:...
".