Ömer Tan

Born in Isparta, Turkey on October 1, 1964. Expelled from high school, he worked as an ironer in a ready-to-wear workshop and as a street vendor. After the 1980 coup, he was imprisoned for political reasons. He graduated from Istanbul University's Faculty of Communication. He started in cinema in 1986 as an assistant to Zeki Ökten. Until his first film, C Block, in 1994, he worked as an assistant director. His experience as an assistant gave him a deep understanding of the Turkish film industry, enabling him to create projects under difficult conditions and with limited resources. His films Innocence (1997), shown at the Venice Film Festival, and The Third Page (1999), shown at Locarno, Rotterdam, and other international festivals, garnered critical acclaim and audience attention. He then directed the first film in the Dark Stories trilogy, Yazgı (Fate) and İtiraf (Confession), both shown in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in 2001. In 2003, he directed Waiting Room. Demirkubuz is known for balancing his passion for filmmaking with a level-headed approach to screenwriting, resulting in an authentic cinematic style. His skill in directing actors is also widely acknowledged. Demirkubuz cites Dostoyevsky as a key influence. His films explore fundamental human moral dilemmas: love, sacrifice, defeat, evil, the absurd, and death. His film Kader (Fate) won the Best Film award at the 2006 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.