Senem Tüzen
Senem Tüzen is a Turkish cinematographer, screenwriter, film director, editor, and producer. She is best known for her 2015 film Motherland. for which she earned the Best Screenplay award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2015, Warsaw International Film Festival's FIPRESCI award, and Tbilisi Film Festival's Golden Prometheus Award for Best Film.
Personal Life
Tüzen is married, and has a son.Education
Tüzen is a graduate of the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, holding a degree in Cinema and Television.Career
Tüzen's film career has seen her in a variety of roles. She holds credits as an editor, cinematographer, director, and producer. Her work frequently features themes of women's role within society and how that applies within the family. A Life Without Words focuses on the role of three deaf siblings living in rural Nicaragua, and looks at the intersections between disability, gender, and poverty, and how these things work into the family unit. Motherland especially, focuses on the uniqueness of mother-daughter relationships in Turkish culture, and how these relationships are reflective of the political landscape of Turkey. Tüzen's experiences with making films that have come from a politically charged stance have led to her being interested in "scripts that can be shot guerrilla-style, independent of any government or institutional support." mentioning earlier in the same interview that government required approval means that certain Turkish films are never viewed in theaters or at film festivals, comparing the process to censorship.Tüzen and her husband co-founded the production company Zela Film which produced her feature film Motherland. Zela Film also produced her 2011 documentary A Life Without Words. Zela Film's other projects include:
Awards and Accolades
Tüzen's feature film, Motherland is by far her most well awarded film, in 2015 it won the Asia Pacific Screen Awards award for Best Screenplay, as well as the FIPRESCI award at the Warsaw International Film Festival, and the Tbilisi Film Festival's Golden Prometheus Award for Best Film. Previous to Motherland, Tüzen also won two IFSAK Best Short Film Awards for Rats and Milk and Chocolate. Milk and Chocolate also received a nomination for the Turkish Film Critics Association's Best Short award.Filmography
Tüzen's early filmography contains primarily short films, only in the later part of her career has she worked on documentaries and feature films.| Yeah | Title | Type | Role |
| 2004 | Ali's Dream | Short | |
| 2005 | Rats | Short | |
| 2007 | Unus Mundus | Short | |
| 2008 | Milk and Chocolate | Short | |
| 2010 | Arpeggio ante lucem | Short | Cinematographer, Editor |
| 2011 | A Life Without Words | Documentary | Director, Editor, Producer |
| 2015 | Motherland | Feature Film | Director, Editor, Producer, Writer |