Alphan Eşeli

Alphan Eşeli is a Turkish Director, Screenwriter and Photographer born in Ankara in 1973, whose directing work includes feature films, commercials and music videos. Following his BA, Eseli moved to New York and graduated from the New York Institute of Technology with a MA degree in filmmaking and has directed award-winning commercials for major Turkish brands such as Beko, İş Bankası, Siemens, TEB, Pinar, Nescafe amongst other. He has also worked as a photographer with world-renowned stars such as Gisele Bundchen, Angela Lindvall, Olivier Martinez and more. In 2011, Eseli has directed Courtney Love’s music video, “Samantha”. In 2009, Eseli co-founded ISTANBUL’74 with his wife, making it the first and pioneering International Arts & Culture platform based in Turkey connecting Istanbul to the International cultural scene. In 2010, Eseli co-founded the Istanbul International Arts & Culture Festival - IST. Festival

In 2013, Eseli has directed and co-wrote his first feature film The Long Way Home (original title: Turkish: Eve Dönüş “Sarıkamış 1915). The film opened nationwide on March 8, 2013 in 77 theatres and has premiered in International Film Festivals. The Long Way Home has won numerous prestigious awards such as the Fipresci Award for the Best First Feature Film and The Golden Zenith for the Best First Fiction Feature Film at the Montreal World Film Festival. It has won the New Talent Award at the Hong Kong Asia Film Festival. Was nominated for the prestigious Sutherland Award for Best Feature Film at the 57th BFI London Film Festival. And has earned the Special Jury Prize Award, Best Actor Award and the Audience Award at the Malatya Film Festival as well as the Best Art Direction Award and Best Music Original Score at the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival.

In 2016, he directed Little Bullets, a short film that tells the story of a Syrian mother and daughter, forced to flee their country falling to pieces under civil war. The film initially started as a project within the European Commission of Human Rights. Five Turkish filmmakers were each asked to shoot a short film surrounding the topic of human rights, Alphan Eseli was one of them. Little Bullets made its international premiere at 43rd Telluride Film Festival and was also screened (official selection) at the 54th New York Film Festival.

As of 2017, he is working on his new short film about the daily inner struggle of a female vampire, torn between her hunger for blood and the last remaining piece of her humanity in the backdrops of modern Turkey.