Nazan Kesal

Acting

Nazan Kesal

Born

1969-03-28 (57)

Place of birth

Manisa, Turkey

Known for

Acting

Credits

56 titles

Nazan Kesal (née Kırılmış; born 28 March 1969) is a Turkish stage and screen actress. In 2004, she worked as a director and actor in Diyarbakır State Theater. The artist who was appointed to Bursa State Theater in early 2004, also worked in private groups such as Ankara Sanatevi Theater, Theater Mirror, Theater Istanbul, Diyarbakir Art Center.

Known for

Bitter Lands poster
7.8

The love story of Zuleyha, ​​who grew up without a father and works with Yilmaz as an auxiliary weaver in order to earn money for her brother, a gambler. The lives of these two young people blinded by the love of one ordinary night will turn into a dark nightmare. This nightmare will take them first from Istanbul and far away, and later to the estate of the Yaman family. In the first episode of the series, Yilmaz and Zuleyha set out to work on the Yaman estate. However, because of one of Zuleyha's lies - the lives of all of them will change radically.

Bitter Lands

2018

Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters poster
8.0

The story of Fazilet, mother of Hazan and Ece, eager to make money using the modeling skills of her younger daughter, Ece. While Hazan pursues a career as a coach in sports, far from her mother's wishes and falls in love with a rich spoiled man.

Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters

2017

The Late Offices poster
8.0

A Turkish mortician in his 30s, Baki is an introverted man content with his isolation from society. However, when he comes up against death at close range, a troubling question strikes him: who would wash his body after he dies? This realization pushes him to venture out into the world, hoping to connect with people and perhaps even find a spouse. Yet, his life-changing decision proves difficult to go through with, leading to a series of awkwardly humorous and sometimes bizarre situations.

The Late Offices

2024

Arda ile Omuz Omuza poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Arda ile Omuz Omuza

2022

Kübra poster
6.9

When a suburban man receives messages that seem to predict the future, he develops a following — and powerful enemies.

Kübra

2024

Halka poster
8.9

Two men unite against a criminal conspiracy, pursuing a dark past of notebooks, cases, and lies. They face the mafia, money, intrigue, and the terrifying Halka.

Halka

2019

Film credits

2020s · 8 titles

On the Water Surface poster
5.5

Deniz returns to her hometown to attend her widowed mother's wedding. The anger, fear, and guilt she thought she'd left behind, resurface during the visit. As her mother leaves her the family house, a tragedy haunts her. She can't stop thinking about her father drowning at sea. Moreover, she feels her mother blames her and has abandoned her for it. She realizes she won't be able to move on like her mother unless she faces her problems head-on. Following a confrontation, Deniz accepts the past and takes a real step into adulthood. Sitting by the sea, she is at peace. The sea is no longer a threat but a sign of liberation. She jumps in.

On the Water Surface

2023

No artwork available
NR

Part filmmaking exercise and part philosophical study, this film is a dual journey for the creator: an exploration of her cinematic language during her studies, and an inquiry into the human impulse to domesticate the wild at the expense of primal instinct.

Your Wild Dogs Want Freedom

2022

Nilgün poster
NR

The film explores the deep traces of the life of poetess Nilgün Marmara, her connection with the literary circle and those aspects of her life that have remained in the shadows until now.

Nilgün

2025

Bitter Coffee poster
NR

Before the wedding, the families of the man and the woman come together. At this meeting, where rituals specific to Turkey are discussed, while there is complete harmony between the two families, it is revealed that the groom committed a murder in the past years. This news sparks many discussions, from political debates to gender roles. The true faces of the characters, who are decorated and ready to play their roles, are revealed. Nothing will be the same again.

Bitter Coffee

2024

Peace with Life poster
6.5

The story of Barış Telli, who suffered an unfortunate accident at a young age and, through his intense struggle after the accident, became not only a member of the Amputee Football National Team but also one of the most inspiring athletes in the country's history.

Peace with Life

2024

Mom's Pale Flowers poster
NR

A year after his father’s death, Bahadir, a struggling artist living in Istanbul returns to the small village he grew up in to oversee the weeklong grape harvest. But what he finds is a region at grips with climate change, on the brink of abandonment, and a looming decision to make: part with his family’s heritage or fight to salvage it.

Mom's Pale Flowers

2025

I'm After Them poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

I'm After Them

2024

You Know Him poster
6.2

Doctor Kemal is head of a private hospital, is ambitious and has the best intentions for the residents of Istanbul. He is the best candidate for mayor of the Beyoglu district – in his opinion. An opinion not shared by his sceptical ex-wife; nor by the voters who come to eat and drink at his expense; nor the party leader, who even after several meetings still thinks he's an architect rather than a doctor; not even his faithful chauffeur. The slogan 'the doctor has the cure' might be catchy, but the doctor has little clue how sick the climate of political nepotism really is.

You Know Him

2020

2010s · 12 titles

Delibal poster
7.2

A love story following two young people battling with their emotions and dreams, the pressures of career, family and not knowing what the future holds. Füsun is a brilliant student, destined for a successful career but can't help from falling for Baris, a musician who struggles with a psychological disorder. As the two grow closer they start to adopt each other's traits, but becoming increasingly dependent on one another proves damaging for their relationship.

Delibal

2015

Dust Cloth poster
7.5

Nesrin and Hatun are two Kurdish cleaning women living in Istanbul. While Nesrin tries to survive with her little daughter, trying to understand why her husband left her, Hatun dreams of buying a house in the district where they clean.

Dust Cloth

2015

The Bank of Broken Hearts poster
6.2

Based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, set in Istanbul, the tragic story of three heroes chasing an unlikely dream, running towards their sad end in a Shakespearean manner.

The Bank of Broken Hearts

2017

Unmade Bed poster
NR

It's a quiet morning and a middle-aged woman is lying on the bed, watching her sleeping husband's back.

Unmade Bed

2015

Circle poster
6.1

In the hard-boiled world, where will the soft-shelled end up? A cozy kind of extermination is on the stage and keeping a low profile. The decadence around us is nothing less than clandestine annihilation of the civil man. Yet it is carried out so well with a grinning face, it is officially sold as transition. Now that the tamed indulgent is striped off social justice, welfare, even denied the tender love of concentration camps and slavery plantations of past centuries. At least hand them a round of rope They have high expectations from taking things in their own hands. Circle is a peculiar story of an ordinary man caught between an untimely romance and a brave new hostile world.

Circle

2014

My Brother poster
5.8

Two resentful, singer brothers Hakan and Ozan who can't get along well. Meet again in their father's funeral. Even though they want to get back to their daily lives after the funeral, their father's will won't allow it. They will take a journey with their dead father's old car in order to carry out his bequest which is to sing at a wedding in Urla.

My Brother

2016

Mother Virgin No More poster
4.0

As an unexpected truth about a young women gets revealed to her mother, the basic fact that a mother - daughter relationship is supposed to be based on unconditional love will have to be questioned.

Mother Virgin No More

2015

Hair poster
5.3

A wig-maker from Istanbul, who suffers from cancer, becomes obsessed with a woman who enters his shop one day.

Hair

2010

Inflame poster
5.3

Hasret has been seeing the same nightmare for some time, but she keeps living unaware that what she sees is actually remembering. A 30-year-old woman who works in a News Channel, living alone in the flat left by her musician parents who died in a car crash twenty years ago. Is it? The question creeps into her mind, and then (or maybe even before) her life through recurring nightmares: Is it possible that her parents did not die in a car crash?

Inflame

2017

Aydede poster
5.4

Losing his father at a very young age, Bekir lives with his mother Rabia and grandfather İlyas, who jointly run a haberdashery store. When İlyas passes away, to spare him grief young Bekir is told that “his beloved grandfather has gone to the moon and become Grandpa Moon.”

Aydede

2018

The Pillar of Salt poster
5.0

A reclusive woman in her thirties leads a life frozen in time in a cave-like room. In her rare trips to the city, she chats with an oarswoman haunted by the devils. She searches for her twin sister in unfrequented corners of the city. In this journey in which time and space are out of joint, a same dream is recounted time after time.

The Pillar of Salt

2018

Shift 12-48 poster
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

Shift 12-48

2012

2000s · 5 titles

Distant poster
7.1

A young man from rural Turkey arrives in Istanbul with dreams of working on a ship and stays with a cousin while he searches for work. Over time, the former’s struggles to find employment and the latter’s troubles and disappointments strain their relationship and living situation.

Distant

2002

Climates poster
6.8

Man was made to be happy for simple reasons and unhappy for even simpler ones – just as he is born for simple reasons and dies for even simpler ones... Isa and Bahar are two lonely figures dragged through the ever-changing climate of their inner selves in pursuit of a happiness that no longer belongs to them.

Climates

2006

Fate poster
7.2

Musa, a customs clerk, sees life as absurd. He drifts with events; his mother's death, though loved, brings him strange joy.

Fate

2001

Conscience poster
5.4

Centers on a passionate and complicated love story that connects three small-town people trying to survive solely on their labor. Aydanur is a young woman living in Anatolia who wants to break away from whatever life has--or doesn't have--to offer her. Meanwhile, Mahmut is stuck between Aydanur and his wife, Songul. However, Aydanur starts covering a much bigger space in his heart. The roads of the two intersect at a tavern.

Conscience

2008

Making Climates poster
NR

A documentary about the shooting session of the film "Climates / İklimler" by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The film had been shot in various parts of Turkey in various seasons. Climates is the first digital film of the director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. And besides directing, he is also acting in the film.

Making Climates

2006

1990s · 6 titles

Daydreams of Miss Cazibe poster
5.8

Cazibe is a woman in her late thirties, who has never got married or had a relationship with a man in her life. She lives with her old mother and her uncle who feels an attraction towards her. The lonely woman, whose only existence is her small room, spends all her time in this old room, dreaming and fantasising about her ex-lover.

Daydreams of Miss Cazibe

1992

The Shadow Play poster
7.2

Mahmut and Abidin work as comedians at a night club, Mahmut is honest yet Abidin is sly. A deaf and mute girl named Kumru is brought to work in the night club.

The Shadow Play

1992

Istanbul Beneath My Wings poster
6.6

During the sea battle which took place between the Ottoman Empire and the Italians, a ship which had been seized in the Mediterranean Sea is brought to Istanbul, and a young wounded lady named Francesca, the daughter of the killed Captain, becomes a slave for Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi.

Istanbul Beneath My Wings

1996

Özlem: Düne, Bugüne, Yarına... poster
NR

A triptych of literary adaptations explores past, present and future in rural Turkey. “Düne Özlem” (from Hulki Aktunç’s Bir Yergöstericinin Hayatı): A once-famed traveling critic returns after years to the cinema that launched his career—and finds it unrecognizably transformed. “Bugüne Özlem” (from Kemal Tahir’s Arabacı): A horse-drawn cart driver picks up two stranger women en route to a village—unaware they intend to marry him off to their spinster relative. “Yarına Özlem” (from Zeyyat Selimoğlu’s Bıldırcınlar): An old captain haunted by a fatal shipwreck readies quail-hunting with his grandson, even as his daughter-in-law waits in vain for her migrant husband to return from Germany. Each segment poignantly probes longing— for what was, what is, and what might yet come.

Özlem: Düne, Bugüne, Yarına...

1995

Şara poster
7.0

Şara was born and raised in Istanbul, is a law student in her final year, and is an educated tribal girl. She learns that her father, whom she has never met, is seriously ill and goes to her hometown to see him. At first, her family, tribe, and step-siblings are prejudiced against her and avoid her, but she later establishes a good dialogue with them and wins their affection. Thanks to her education, she will educate and raise awareness among the people there. However, this requires a difficult struggle. According to tribal customs, girls are not entitled to inheritance, so after her father's death, her uncles demand that Şara renounce her inheritance, but she refuses. By resisting the injustices committed against defenseless, uneducated women and girls, she finds herself face to face with death. Through her education and love, she will single-handedly defy an entire tribe, shatter their traditions, and bring them to their knees.

Şara

1999

Bir Sonbahar Hikayesi poster
6.5

No synopsis available yet.

Bir Sonbahar Hikayesi

1994

Series credits

Bitter Lands poster
7.8

The love story of Zuleyha, ​​who grew up without a father and works with Yilmaz as an auxiliary weaver in order to earn money for her brother, a gambler. The lives of these two young people blinded by the love of one ordinary night will turn into a dark nightmare. This nightmare will take them first from Istanbul and far away, and later to the estate of the Yaman family. In the first episode of the series, Yilmaz and Zuleyha set out to work on the Yaman estate. However, because of one of Zuleyha's lies - the lives of all of them will change radically.

Bitter Lands

2018

Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters poster
8.0

The story of Fazilet, mother of Hazan and Ece, eager to make money using the modeling skills of her younger daughter, Ece. While Hazan pursues a career as a coach in sports, far from her mother's wishes and falls in love with a rich spoiled man.

Mrs. Fazilet and Her Daughters

2017

The Late Offices poster
8.0

A Turkish mortician in his 30s, Baki is an introverted man content with his isolation from society. However, when he comes up against death at close range, a troubling question strikes him: who would wash his body after he dies? This realization pushes him to venture out into the world, hoping to connect with people and perhaps even find a spouse. Yet, his life-changing decision proves difficult to go through with, leading to a series of awkwardly humorous and sometimes bizarre situations.

The Late Offices

2024

Arda ile Omuz Omuza poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Arda ile Omuz Omuza

2022

Kübra poster
6.9

When a suburban man receives messages that seem to predict the future, he develops a following — and powerful enemies.

Kübra

2024

Halka poster
8.9

Two men unite against a criminal conspiracy, pursuing a dark past of notebooks, cases, and lies. They face the mafia, money, intrigue, and the terrifying Halka.

Halka

2019

Çocuk poster
6.8

Being the daughter of a prostitute mother, Akca gives up her motherhood in order to give her child a better future. The bride of a wealthy family, Sule promises to be a mother to Akca's baby for a lifetime. She looks at the baby she named Efe and raises him. Things change with the birth of Sule's own child.

Çocuk

2019

Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan ile Empati poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan ile Empati

2022

Altın Koza poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Altın Koza

1969

Next Room poster
6.7

Sevgi Ersoy, a famous TV presenter whose career is on the decline, suddenly marries Fikret Alabey, one of the country's leading businessmen. This unexpected marriage shocks everyone. Both Sevgi and Fikret have had unhappy marriages in the past. They now want to live out their second chances, but it won't be easy. Their marriage means their very different families will come together. The cohabitation of these two very different families under one roof will create bigger problems than Sevgi and Fikret anticipated, changing the lives of all family members, especially their children, Taylan and Şelale, who are forced to live in adjacent rooms.

Next Room

2024

The Last Day poster
8.0

A known psychologist conducts research that will carry him even further on the ladder of fame: A group of six people is made to believe that they will all die on the same day from different causes.

The Last Day

2023

Mühürlü Güller poster
8.5

The story of three prostitutes trying to turn a new page in their lives. A town named "Sealed" is an opportunity for them to forget their previous painful lives. But unexpected events await them in the neighborhood.

Mühürlü Güller

2003

Kayıp Şehir poster
8.0

What is happening in Istanbul's back streets? Which lives are flowing, in the shadow of poverty? Women, gypsies, transvestites, street children each are victims of another discrimination. A typical Black Sea family connected to each other will meet with people who are trying to cling to the loneliness of life in this neighborhood where they will be forced to survive after their migration to Istanbul.

Kayıp Şehir

2012

Bir Peri Masalı poster
8.0

Alina Boz gives life to a babysitter named "Zeynep". Zeynep, who grew up facing many challenges, partly due to her useless father, will face the biggest test when she stumbles upon a bag of cash

Bir Peri Masalı

2022

Cennetin Çocukları poster
5.0

No synopsis available yet.

Cennetin Çocukları

2008

Enemy of Love poster
6.0

This story is the difficult journey of Inci and Uygar who forbid love to themselves for different reasons. As human beings run away from their greatest need, they become coldhearted, cruel, and even distant from themselves.

Enemy of Love

2024

Tatlı Betüş poster
6.5

No synopsis available yet.

Tatlı Betüş

1993

Bugünün Saraylısı poster
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

Bugünün Saraylısı

2013

Bir Ömür Yetmez poster
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

Bir Ömür Yetmez

2011

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Rüzgarlı Bahçe

2005

Hicran Yarası poster
NR

A family with a large inheritance replaces a deceased person with another in order to reach the inheritance.

Hicran Yarası

2009

One Thousand And One Nights poster
NR

A king who kills his brides meets a woman who refuses to die—and changes his fate with her stories. After a deep betrayal, Sultan Şehriyar loses all trust in love. He begins marrying young women, but none of them are seen again after their wedding night. Fear spreads across the kingdom, and no family feels safe. Everything changes when Şehrazat, the daughter of the Grand Vizier, chooses to marry him. She believes she can stop him and save others. On their wedding night, she tells a story—but leaves it unfinished. The Sultan becomes curious and lets her live for one more night. Night after night, Şehrazat tells new stories. Each one reveals hidden truths and slowly breaks the Sultan’s anger. She is not only trying to survive—she tries to heal him and uncover what really happened in the palace.

One Thousand And One Nights

—

No artwork available
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Yadigar

2004

Behind the camera