Suna Pekuysal

Suna Pekuysal—now there’s a name that means something in Turkish cinema. Born smack in the middle of Istanbul back in ‘33, she basically grew up with the city itself. If you ever caught her in Insaat (that wild 2003 flick about construction-site madness), you know she could steal a scene in her sleep. And Yeter Anne? Classic. She had this way of playing moms that felt like your own yelling at you to put on a sweater. Seriously, she brought this warmth and edge to every role, like she’d lived a hundred lives before stepping onto the set. Her career stretched over decades, and don’t even get me started on Kanun Adami—mid-80s Turkish crime drama at its best, and she just... nailed it. She wasn’t some flash-in-the-pan starlet; she was the real deal, grinding through the ups and downs of Turkish film and TV when it was still figuring itself out. Off camera, she was married to Ergun Köknar, another legend in his own right, so yeah, talk about a power couple. Istanbul was her city from start to finish; she left the stage for good in 2008, but her roles still echo every time someone flips on an old Turkish movie after midnight. If you want to know what Turkish acting chops look like, you just watch Suna. She made it all look easy, but you know it wasn’t.