Halit Refiğ facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Halit Refiğ
Born	(1934-03-05)5 March 1934 İzmir, Turkey
Died	11 October 2009(2009-10-11) (aged 75) Istanbul, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Occupation	Film director, film producer, screenwriter, writer

Halit Refiğ (5 March 1934 – 11 October 2009) was a Turkish film director, film producer, screenwriter and writer. He made around sixty films, including feature films, documentaries 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 College in Istanbul.

Refiğ directed his first films in 8mm while he served as a military reserve officer in Korea, Japan 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's assistant in 1957 together with Yılmaz Güney. He worked as scriptwriter for Atıf Yılmaz and Memduh Ün. His directorial debut was Forbidden Love (Yasak Aşk) (1961). His 1962 film Stranger in the City was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival.

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 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 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, he began developing a feature film project titled Devlet Ana (Mother State), to be released on the 700th anniversary of the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. 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.

Academic life

He lectured at the University of Wisconsin in 1976, where he directed The Intercessors, and at Denison University in Ohio in 1984, where he shot In the Wilderness with his students. He was given the title of "Honorary Professor" by Marmara University in 1997.

Death

He suffered from cholangiocarcinoma and died on 11 October 2009 in Istanbul, aged 75. He was interred in the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery two days later, following the funeral service held at Teşvikiye Mosque.

Filmography as director

Producer

• Yaşamak Hakkımdır 1958
• İstanbul'un Kızları 1964
• Canım Sana Feda 1965
• İki Yabancı 1990

Screenwriter

See also

In Spanish: Halit Refiğ para niños