Even though he has only made six films for the screen, Yavuz Turgul has established a firm place among the masters of Turkish cinema. One of these is Muhsin Bey, considered to be among the best ten Turkish films in each and every inquiry, and another one is Eşkıya / The Bandit, which brought viewers back into movie theaters in the 90's, after the crisis at the end of the 70's. This very brief filmography contains one "best" and one "most popular", which is an accomplishment in itself. Yavuz Turgul, born in 1946 in İstanbul, was in fact quite a late starter in cinema. After graduating from the İstanbul University Faculty of Economy, he worked in the press for many years. When he started working for Arzu Film as scriptwriter in 1976, he was thirty years old. Turgul's aptitude for humor and his success in creating characters with great potential for actors, encouraged him to write special scripts for the stars of Arzu Film. Turgul, saying "What makes a film truly a film, what breathes life into it, is of course actors and actresses", produced work in line with this conception of his. It wouldn't be erroneous to state that the ties between Turgul and his fetish actor Şener Şen were established with Züğürt Ağa / The Agha. Şen had always acted in these films in supporting roles, but the weight of the starring role brought out the potential in the TurgulŞen relationship. Turgul, who makes films like the French master Claude Chabrol – keeping the crew he has grown used to and gets along with, making only necessary additions, without wavering a bit from his principles – and who is known on the set for his fastidiousness and authoritarian nature, protects himself from external pressure by not directing feature films so frequently.
- Alin Taşçıyan