Ayşe Polat

Ayşe Polat (born 19 October 1970) is a German-Kurdish film director, screenwriter and film producer.

Career In 1992 she releases the short film Fremdennacht, which is supported by the Hamburg Film Bureau. Her 1994 short film Ein Fest für Beyhan wins several awards, including the WDR sponsorship prize. Gräfin Sophia Hatun (1997) also tours several international festivals and receives the Special Jury Prize at the Ankara International Film Festival.

Her feature film debut (1999) toured numerous international festivals and partook in the international competition of Karlovy Vary and Tokyo. Polat received the award for best directorial debut at the Ankara International Film Festival.

Her second feature film En Garde (2004) was screened as the Locarno Film Festival opening film and received the Silver Leopard for Best Film and Best Actresses, Maria Kwiatkowsky and Pinar Erincin. In 2005, Polat received the German Critics Award for En Garde.

In 2006, Polat directed her first theater work Otobüs at Berlin's Theater Hebbel am Ufer (HAU 2). The play deals with the kidnapping of a group of German package tourists in Turkey.

Polat co-produced her third feature film Luks Glück. The tragicomedy tells the story of a Turkish family between Hamburg and Istanbul, whose life is thrown off course when they win the lottery.

In 2013, her film The Heiress, which she also produced, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film deals with the return of a young woman from Germany back to the home country of her deceased father.

Her first documentary The Others is completed in 2016 and has its international premiere at DOK Leipzig.

Reception Polat belongs to the first wave of young Turkish filmmakers at the end of the nineties. Her Kurdish heritage allows the young filmmaker a different approach to themes of belonging and origin. As one of the few German filmmakers with a history of migration, she is represented at the retrospective of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, which focuses on the filmmaking of female directors in the period from 1968 to 1999.

In her cinematic work, Polat deals with themes of the search and loss of identity. Her work is associated with the Berlin School.

Being a director of films that belong to the so-called German-Turkish cinema, Ayşe Polat is particularly involved with the political relevance of a poiesis of seeing films, as it becomes most apparent when a minority position is placed in relation to the context of a hegemonic entertainment culture.

Filmography Fremdennacht (1992), short (1994) short Gräfin Sophia Hatun (1997) short (1999) (2004) Luks Glück (2010) (2013) Die Anderen (2016) Tatort: Masken (2021) In the Blind Spot (2023) Tatort: Borowski und das unschuldige Kind von Wacken (2023)

Awards Federal Youth and Video Competition Award 1991: Entfremdet

Award of the West German Broadcast 1994: Ein Fest für Beyhan

Ankara International Film Festival 1997: Jury Prize for Gräfin Sophia Hatun 2000: Best Directorial Debut for Tour Abroad 2005: Jury Prize for En Garde 2023: Best Director In the Blind Spot 2023: Best Screenplay In the Blind Spot 2023: FIPRESCI Award In the Blind Spot

International Film Festival Locarno 2004: Silver Leopard for En Garde

Otto Sprenger Directing Award 2004: En Garde

German Critics Award 2005: Best Feature Film for En Garde

German Cinema New Talent Award 2010: Category: Editing for Luk's Glück

Beyond Borders Documentary Film Festival 2018: Best Sociopolitical Documentary for The Others

DOK. Leipzig 2018 Ver.di Award for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness for The Others

Oldenburg International Film Festival 2023: German Independence Award for Best Film In the Blind Spot

Istanbul Film Festival 2023: Golden Tulip for Best Film In the Blind Spot 2023: Best Screenplay In the Blind Spot

Dohuk Film Festival 2023: Best Screenplay In the Blind Spot 2023: FIPRESCI Award In the Blind Spot