Tuncel Kurtiz is an international actor who has worked in various countries such as Turkey, Germany, and Sweden throughout his fifty-year career. He has starred in countless works in cinema, stage and television and has received many awards, including the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. He has directed two documentaries and a feature-length fiction film. Kurtiz's acting performance ranges from popular melodramas to major plays such as Mahabharata (Peter Brook), encompassing many different genres and styles. As an actor, Kurtiz believes in the creative power of chaos: 'Chaos is the most difficult to create / Not a false chaos / Many things come out of chaos'. Through testimonies, film excerpts, and archive footage, this documentary reflects Tuncel Kurtiz's diverse body of artistic work in all its dimensions for the first time. In the background of this detailed portrait are Turkey's turbulent years and the reality of exile.
Acting
Kurtiz's Mahabharata footage alone justifies the runtime.
Direction
Alper weaves exile, art, and archive with surgical precision.
Director
Özcan Alper
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Peter Brook's nine-hour Mahabharata (1985) required Kurtiz to perform in Sanskrit, French, and English simultaneously — he reportedly learned phonetically without understanding the languages.
Kurtiz's 2013 death sparked unprecedented cross-political mourning in Turkey, with Erdogan and Gezi Park protesters both claiming his legacy — this documentary arrives as that contested memory crystallizes.
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