Cengiz Akaygün

Director

Free Monkey Film

BIOGRAPHIE

Cengiz Akaygün was born into a Kurdish family in Germany when his mother was visiting Germany for medical treatment for his then older brother. He grew up in Turkey until his family returned to Stuttgart at the age of seven. During his studies in communication and media studies, he discovered his passion for filmmaking by shooting an image film for the city of Duisburg as part of a practical project. Then he shot a short documentary (37min) about Kurdish students in Diyarbakir, which was partly made with hidden cameras. After completing his BA in communications and media studies, he worked with various social institutions in which he carried out projects with teenagers with a migration background for the organizations "Kreisjugendring Rems-Murr" and "Internationaler Bund", including film workshops on short films and music videos One of the short films was »The Others«, which the young people staged, shot and edited. In 2014, he made his first short film »Free Monkeys« as a producer, director and screenwriter. As a thriller about global ethics and individual guilt, the film has received awards at several international festivals, including best film at the Genrenale Festival in Berlin. After »The Barber« from 2016, »The Mandarine Tree« was his third short film on the subject of social injustice. The mandarin tree received 20 awards worldwide and was nominated over 50 times. In August 2020 he shot his last short film: “Tesbih”, a black and white film in 4: 3 format that deals with the subject of racism in relation to the interreligious conflict between different cultures. The film is completed in March, 2021. He shot his last short film in October 2020 with the title: "AISHA", and completed it in May 2021. It is about a little girl in Afrin (Syria) who is put to a religious test by a woman. At the Moment he is working on the script for his first feature film, which he will also direct.

FILMOGRAPHIE