Cihan Inan

Cihan Inan was born in Switzerland as the third of five children of Turkish immigrants. While studying philosophy and German language and literature at the University of Bern, he worked as a projectionist in cinemas in the capital city of Bern and as a film and theater critic. After graduating, he worked for two years as an assistant director at the Theater Freiburg in Germany before delivering his first directorial work at the Theater Freiburg in 1999. Since then, he has regularly directed plays throughout the German-speaking world to the present day. In 2002 he decided to direct the film adaptation of Nick Cave's debut novel "And the Ass Saw the Angel". This project was realized in 2003 at his own expense and with a lot of private funds in Turkey. In the same year the filmed material was stolen and remained lost until today. After this setback, he started working on the script for "180°", which became his first visible feature film. "180°" was released in cinemas on September 2010 and won several international awards at festivals around the world for best film, best director, best screenplay, best music, best actress. Since the 2017/18 season he was artistic director of the City Theater in the capital Bern until 2022. On September 2018, his second feature film "Zone Rouge" - a reunion story set in only one location, a kind of "huis clos" of memories - was released in Swiss cinemas. The psychological thriller "Retour" is his third feature film which will be released in 2024. His next movie is called "Ugly King's Way" and is about the escape of the famous Turkish film director Yilmaz Güney and then it follows the story about the unbelievable life and mysterious death of the Swiss businessman Hans-Ulrich Lenzlinger "Leopard". This will be his next two feature films as a director and writer.