Halit Refig
Encyclopedia
Halit Refiğ was a Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and writer. He made around sixty films, including feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s, documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
and TV serials. He is considered to be the pioneer of the National Cinema movement and the initiator of the production of TV serials in Turkey.
Biography
Halit Refiğ graduated from Şişli Terakki High School in 1951 and studied engineering at Robert CollegeRobert College
Robert College of Istanbul , is one of the most selective independent private high schools in Turkey. Robert College is a co-educational, boarding school with a wooded campus on the European side of Istanbul between the two bridges on the Bosphorus, with the Arnavutköy district to the east, and...
in Istanbul
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...
.
Refiğ directed his first films in 8mm
8 mm film
8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm, and Super 8...
while he served as a military reserve officer in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Ceylon. He wrote articles on cinema at newspapers in 1956 and published the Sinema Dergisi magazine together with Nijat Özön. He began his career as Atıf Yılmaz
Atif Yilmaz
Atıf Yılmaz Batıbeki was a renowned Turkish Kurdish film director, screenwriter and film producer. He was almost a legend in the film industry of Turkey with 119 movies directed. He also wrote 53 screenplays and produced 28 movies since 1951. He was active in almost every period of the Turkish...
's assistant
Assistant director
The role of an Assistant director include tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of health and safety of the crew...
in 1957 together with Yılmaz Güney
Yilmaz Güney
Yılmaz Güney, was a Kurdish film director, scenarist, novelist and actor from Turkey. Many of his works are devoted to the plight of ordinary, working class people in Turkey.- Biography :...
. He worked as scriptwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
for Atıf Yılmaz and Memduh Ün
Memduh Ün
Memduh Ün is a Turkish film producer, director, actor and screenwriter. His film The Broken Pots was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festival.-External links:...
. His directorial debut was Forbidden Love (Yasak Aşk) (1961).
In the 1970s, with the decline in Turkish cinema, he started to work extensively for TV. In 1974, he contributed as an instructor to the first cinema education programs initiated by the Istanbul State Fine Arts Academy (the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts
Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts
Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University is a Turkish state university dedicated to the higher education of fine arts. It is located in the Fındıklı neighborhood of İstanbul, Turkey.-History:...
of today) where he started to work as lecturer in 1975. In 1975, he directed the TV series Aşk-ı Memnu (Forbidden Love) which was aired on the Turkish Radio Television, TRT. This TV serial is considered to be the first miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
on Turkish television stations. In 1978, he wrote a script for a documentary about the life of Mimar Sinan on commission from the Mimar Sinan University. The project was not completed but the script was published.
In 1999, on commission from the then Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit
Bülent Ecevit
Mustafa Bülent Ecevit was a Turkish politician, poet, writer and journalist, who was the leader of Republican People's Party , later of the Democratic Left Party and four-time Prime Minister of Turkey.- Personal life :...
, he began developing a feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
project titled Devlet Ana (Mother State), to be released on the 700th anniversary of the establishment of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. The project was going to be conducted in collaboration with the Mimar Sinan University (MSU). In 2001, Refiğ stated that he will not collaborate with MSU and thus the project was not realized.
Censorship
Refiğ's 1979-81 adaptation of Kemal TahirKemal Tahir
Kemal Tahir was a prominent Turkish novelist and intellectual. Tahir spent 13 years of his life imprisoned due to political reasons and wrote some of his most important novels during this time...
's novel, Yorgun Savaşçı, for TRT, where he served as an advisor, was banned from broadcast by TRT on accounts of incorporating scenes which were anti-Atatürk, anti-Turkish Independence War, and pro-Çerkes Ethem
Çerkes Ethem
Çerkes Ethem was a Turkish militia leader of Circassian origin who initially gained fame for fighting against the Allied powers invading Anatolia in the aftermath of the World War I and afterwards during the Turkish War of Independence....
. A commission of seven people comprising three colonels, a representative of the Ministry of Interior, a representative of the press office of the Prime Minister, two TRT representatives, and Turgut Özakman, the director of the Turkish State Theatres, representing the Ministry of Culture, was formed on order from President Kenan Evren
Kenan Evren
Ahmet Kenan Evren was the seventh President of Turkey; a post he assumed by leading the 1980 military coup. He was also the last president to be born in the Ottoman Empire.- Biography :...
and Prime Minister Bülent Ulusu and the prints were burnt in 1983 by TRT director Macit Akman, at the furnaces of the Turkish General Staff printhouse under the supervision of the said commission. This censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
caused public controversy. A surviving copy surfaced in 1993 and the 8-episode miniseries was broadcast in its entirety on TRT.
Academic life
He lectured at the University of Wisconsin in 1976, where he directed The Intercessors, and at Denison UniversityDenison University
Denison University is private, coeducational, and residential college of liberal arts and sciences founded in 1831. It is located in Granville, Ohio, United States, approximately 30 miles east of Columbus, the state capital...
in Ohio in 1984, where he shot In the Wilderness with his students. He was given the title of "Honorary Professor" by Marmara University
Marmara University
Marmara University is a public university in Turkey. Situated in Istanbul, Marmara University has succeeded in becoming the second largest university in the whole country...
in 1997.
Death
He suffered from cholangiocarcinomaCholangiocarcinoma
Cholangiocarcinoma is a cancer of the bile ducts which drain bile from the liver into the small intestine. Other biliary tract cancers include pancreatic cancer, gallbladder cancer, and cancer of the ampulla of Vater...
and died on October 11, 2009 in Istanbul, aged 75. He was interred in the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery
Zincirlikuyu Cemetery
The Zincirlikuyu Cemetery is a modern burial ground at the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. It is administered by the Metropolitan Municipality. Many prominent figures from the world of politics, business, sports and arts rest here....
two days later, following the funeral service held at Teşvikiye Mosque
Tesvikiye Mosque
The Teşvikiye Mosque is a neo-baroque structure located in the Teşvikiye neighbourhood of Şişli district in Istanbul, Turkey. It was originally commissioned in 1794 by Sultan Selim III, but most of the current mosque that stands today was completed in 1854 during the reign of Sultan Abdülmecit I...
.
Filmography
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Producer
- Yaşamak Hakkımdır 1958
- İstanbul'un Kızları 1964
- Canım Sana Feda 1965
- İki Yabancı 1990
Screenwriter
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Sources
- This article incorporates text translated from the Turkish WikipediaTurkish WikipediaTurkish Wikipedia is the Turkish language edition of Wikipedia, spelled Vikipedi. Started in December 2002, this edition has over 166,000 articles, and was the 20th largest Wikipedia edition based on article count as of January 2011....
article Halit Refiğ, licensed under the . - Biography of Halit Refiğ
Published screenplays
- Refiğ, Halit. (2009). Puşkin Erzurumda. Dergah Yayınları, Sinema İletişim Dizisi, İstanbul. ISBN 978 975 9951764
- Refiğ, Halit. (2009). Koca Sinan. Dergah Yayınları, Sinema İletişim Dizisi, İstanbul. ISBN 978 975 9951757
- Refiğ, Halit. (2009). Şeytan Aldatması. Alfa Basım Yayım Dağıtım, Senaryo Dizisi, İstanbul. ISBN 978 6051061146
- Refiğ, Halit. (2009). Gazi ile Latife: Mustafa Kemal'in Yaşamından Bir Kesit. Alfa Basım Yayım Dağıtım, Senaryo Dizisi, İstanbul. ISBN 978 6051060323
- Refiğ, Halit. (2006). Aşk ve Ölüm Senaryoları. Doğan Kitapçılık, İstanbul. ISBN 9789752934504
Non-fiction (memoirs, essays)
- Refiğ, Halit; eds. Gültekin, D. Ali; Zileli, Irmak. (2009). Doğruyu Aradım Güzeli Sevdim. Bizim Kitaplar Yayınevi, İstanbul. ISBN 978 9944159661
- Refiğ, Halit; ed. Gültekin, D. Ali. (2007). Tek Umut Türkiye. Bizim Kitaplar Yayınevi, İstanbul. ISBN 978 9944159166
- Refiğ, Halit & Hristidis, Şengün Kılıç. (2007). Sinemada Ulusal Tavır. Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, İstanbul. ISBN 978 9944880640
- Refiğ, Halit. (2002). Doğu Batı ve Türkiye 10 Yılda Nereden Başladık? Nereye Geldik?. Ufuk Kitapları, İstanbul. ISBN 978 9756571187
- Refiğ, Halit. (2000). Gerçeğin Değişkenliği Kemal Tahir. Ufuk Kitapları, İstanbul. ISBN 978 9756714041
Further reading
- Maraşlı, Gülşah Nezaket. (2007). Bir Halit Refiğ Filmi. Elips Kitap, İstanbul. ISBN 978 975 8971008
- Adiloğlu, Fatoş. (2006). Sinemada Mimari Açılımlar: Halit Refiğ Filmleri. Es Yayınları, İstanbul. ISBN 978-975-8716-40-1
- Türk, İbrahim. (2001). Halit Refiğ Düşlerden Düşüncelere Söyleşiler. Kabalcı Yayınları, İstanbul. ISBN 975-8240-41-2