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Selcuk Cara

Selcuk Cara

Guest of the Opera

Biography

The German opera and film director, scriptwriter, author and singer (bass) Selcuk Cara first studied philosophy with Jürgen Habermas before beginning to explore his passion for opera. As an actor and graduated opera singer, he worked with Werner Schroeter, Frank Castorf, Stefan Ruzowitzky, Michael Hampe, Günter Krämer, Vincenzo Cerami and Roberto Ando. Upon the advice of Werner Schroeter, he began studying for an MA in scenography, focusing on film. Master classes and seminars with Vittorio Storaro, Vilmos Zsigmond, Gus Van Sant, Mike Figgis, Christopher Doyle and Dennis Hopper deepened his knowledge. With his second movie, Hymns to the Night, he was invited to eleven international film festivals, with his third film, Lullaby, he was invited to the Plus Camerimage International Film Festival, Poland, and the Delhi International Film Festival, India. Shortly after completing his fourth film, My Last Concert, he was invited to the Montreal World Film Festival, Canada, won numerous international film awards, including the Alaska International Film Award, USA, the TMFF Film Festival in 2016, UK (three categories: best movie, best screenwriter, best editor), the Phoenix Film Festival Award – Best Human Rights 2016, Australia, the Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival (Grand Prize: cinematography), USA. My Last Concert received the rating “highly recommended” (Prädikat "besonders wertvoll") and was named “film of the month” by German Film and Media Review (FBW) – film evaluation board. Selcuk Cara was invited to the New York City International Film Festival, USA, the 36th Film Festival Max Ophüls Prize, Germany, was in the official selections of the UK Film Festival London and Michael Ballhaus First Steps festival, Germany. Selcuk Cara is the first Turkish-origin winner of the Yerevan International Film Festival, Armenia, and the first winner of the American Movie Awards 2017 (best cinematography), USA, and the North American Film Awards.
In 2016, he published the autobiographical novel Turk,Yet Intelligent, which became a Spiegel-Bestseller. His novel is taken up in the Library “Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz“ (Joseph Wulf Mediothek) and in the International Tracing Service ITS Library (one of the world's largest archives of the Holocaust, concentration camps, forced labour and displaced persons). His novel is now part of the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage. Selcuk Cara is a member of the BVR (German Directors Guild). In 2016, he was chosen as a member of the nomination jury of the most important German directors award, Deutscher Regiepreis Metropolis, and he was the director of the opening ceremony at the Brecht Festival 2017with Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler’s Die Maßnahme. In May 2017, he was granted the first scholarship by the Richard-Wagner-Verband Frankfurt am Main for his PhD dissertation on the subject of Der Ring des Nibelungen: Disintegration of family structures as a dramatic device in Richard Wagner‘s tetralogy.
In 2019, Selcuk Cara will implement – as director, set designer and light designer – a unique project in which he unites an opus of the composer Chaya Czernowin, born in Israel, and Weiße Rose by the German composer Udo Zimmermann. This project will be shown in a number of opera houses in order to educate young people. A famous history researcher will supplement the project with information about the " Widerstand“, the German anti-Nazi resistance (Forschungsschwerpunkt Widerstandsgeschichte).