Çetin Tunca

Çetin Tunca, born way back in 1938, is one of those behind-the-scenes legends you probably never heard about unless you’re deep into Turkish cinema. The guy really knows his way around a camera. He’s the eye behind classics like "Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım" (that’s the one with the red-scarved girl—yeah, that’s him), "Hayallerim, Aşkım ve Sen," and "Fahriye Abla." Let’s be real: without Tunca’s magic, those films just wouldn’t hit the same. He’s got this uncanny talent for capturing the raw, gritty, messy reality of daily life—without making it look ugly, you know? It’s like he finds beauty in the dust, in the sunlight sneaking through curtains, in the faces of regular people. "Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım," for example, isn’t just a love story. It’s a mood. That visual poetry? All Tunca. The kind of cinematography that feels like nostalgia, even if you’ve never been to Turkey or lived in the ‘70s. The man’s not all about the past, though. Even in the mid-80s and late ‘80s, he was still cranking out emotionally dense, visually rich movies. Every frame feels lived-in, like you could step inside and smell the tea brewing. Honestly, Tunca’s work is all about bringing stories to life in a way that punches you right in the gut—softly, but you feel it. That’s his trademark. If Turkish film had a soul, Tunca definitely helped shape it.