Biography

Born in 1958. His childhood house overlooked a projection room, owned by the Board of Censors, where the members of the board were cutting the films. As the cutter threw away film pieces out of the window, Altioklar and his friends were eagerly waiting for them outside the window of the projection room. That was his first meeting with the art of light and images. In 1977, he started his medical education in Faculty of Medicine of Hacettepe University and became a qualified specialist of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in 1991. Mustafa Altioklar began his film career by shooting short films in 1989. After shooting five short films one after another in three years and winning many awards consecutively, he began shooting his feature films. By winning the award of "The Best New Coming Director" with his first feature film, Balcony, at Ankara Film Festival in 1992, Altioklar drew the attention of Turkish film industry to his work. With his second feature film, Istanbul Under My Wings (1995), he also brought an unexpected vivacity to the Turkish Cinema whose film production had decreased dramatically and whose number of viewers had neared to nothing during the past 20 years. After this contribution, which is now called the rebirth of Turkish Cinema's reconciliation with its audience; Altioklar carried on his road and proved the permanence of his success by shooting Kolera Street (1997). Altioklar's usage of locations as actors in his films has become a characteristic of his work. This trade mark became especially distinctive in his fourth feature The Elevator (1999), and his fifth, The Bathroom (2005). While his direction of an ensemble cast and parallel fiction was recognized as astonishing in He is in the Army now (2002), his last film Shattered Soul (2005) has taken its well-earned place in Turkish Cinema History as being the first psychological thriller ever, and was awarded with a "Bronze Gryphone" at 2006 in International St. Petersburg Film Festival. Altioklar has written all the scripts of his short and feature films.

- IMDb mini biography by: Mustafa Altioklar