Ercan Kesal

Acting

Ercan Kesal

Born 1959-01-01 · Avanos, Nevsehir, Turkey

Ercan Kesal was born on 12 September 1959 in Avanos, Nevsehir, Turkey. He is an actor and writer, known for Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011), You Know Him (2020) and The Pit (2016). He has been married to Nazan Kesal since 2005.

Acting credits

Abandoned Man poster
7.4

After serving time in prison for his brother's crime, a man warily reunites with family, finding hope and healing in a life-changing bond with his niece.

Abandoned Man

2025

Black Sun poster
5.0

A coming storm after dog days dawns during a road trip to an island for a funeral. The deceased is buried in haste and a man makes a detour through Aegean Turkey. The funeral is eclipsed by a last wish.

Black Sun

2019

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia poster
7.5

A group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

2011

I Am Not Him poster
6.0

Nihat, an introverted employee in a hospital cafeteria, is confused by Ayşe, a mysterious woman who just started working there as a dishwasher. Her obvious seductive approaches embarrass Nihat and make him nervous at the same time. Despite the rumors about her husband having been sentenced to many years in jail, Nihat reluctantly accepts Ayşe’s invitation to dinner at her house. This is the beginning of a strange and dangerous liaison. When Nihat discovers a picture of the woman’s husband and realizes that he looks astoundingly like him, the relation becomes even more toxic.

I Am Not Him

2013

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

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

Butterflies poster
6.9

Three strangers with one thing in common — the same father — come to a Turkish village to bury him, and learn about him and each other.

Butterflies

2018

The Reeds poster
8.0

In a village in Anatolia at the foothills of the mountains, a young man resists the domination of landlords and local gangs while striving to win back his wife's love and affection.

The Reeds

2025

Nausea poster
5.8

Ahmet, who had recently lost his wife and little daughter in a traffic accident while he was away with his lover, is a prominent person dealing with "head work". As someone who does not care for anybody and does not knuckle under anything, he moves on quite unaffected. Yet some things start to change in himself and his life without any apparent reason.

Nausea

2015

Three Monkeys poster
6.8

A family battles against the odds to stay together when small lies grow into an extravagant cover-up. In order to avoid hardship and responsibilities that would otherwise be impossible to endure, the family chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it. But does playing “Three Monkeys” invalidate the truth of its existence?

Three Monkeys

2008

Government Woman poster
6.0

Xate is an ordinary woman from Midyat with eight children in tow. The only thing that sets her apart is her husband's job as Mayor of Midyat. Until, that is, an extraordinary day changes her life - and the lives of everyone else in Midyat. For the illiterate, uneducated Xate becomes Mayor of Midyat! While she takes on her mayoral duties much as she does those in her house, the infantile rivalry between her children in municipal matters leads to adventures that have the Midyat folk howling with laughter.

Government Woman

2013

Mold poster
6.5

Basri, 55 year old, every day walks for miles along the tracks working as a railroad watchman. His nagging thought is finding his son. Eighteen years ago, while the boy was studying at the university in Istanbul, the police took him into custody for antigovernment activities. Then, he mysteriously disappeared.

Mold

2013

The Smell of Money poster
3.5

A cab driver, a teahouse owner and an out-of-work journalist live in a down-at-heel suburb of Ankara. When the driver tells his friends tales of the murky and unlawful dealings of his passengers, they install a camera to record the passengers.

The Smell of Money

2018

Cold Hell poster
6.0

A young Vienna-based taxi driver of Turkish origin witnesses an extremely brutal murder. The perpetrator, a serial killer, makes eye contact with her; a deadly game of cat-and-mouse ensues.

Cold Hell

2017

The Things You Kill poster
6.3

Questioning the suspicious death of his mother, a university professor and his enigmatic gardener descend into a hypnotic maze of mirrors and memories. As family secrets surface and painful truths emerge, they spiral toward a devastating reckoning with the darkness lurking within us all.

The Things You Kill

2025

Kısmet poster
6.0

A young girl's bargaining with her father to marry whoever she wants will cause her family to reveal their hidden dirty laundry.

Kısmet

2020

9,75 poster
6.0

During his military service in 1990's Southeast Turkey, Ahmet experiences something that will haunt him for the rest of his life. In 2013, when the chaotic days of Gezi Park protests in Istanbul start, Ahmet learns he has a brain tumor. Just as the lines between truth and fiction, the dream and the reality start to get blurred for him, he meets Serap; the love of his life. But time is ticking and his painful past weighs down on him every day, suffocating him with the same question: Who is the child that plays hide and seek with him?

9,75

2020

Whitewash poster
NR

In some villages in Eastern Anatolia, there is a common belief: If someone is about to die, a smell develops in the house a few days before the death occurs. Villagers call this smell "meft". A girl raised with this belief, is about to whitewash a room in the house for her sick mother to rest in. As she enters the room, the girl encounters a smell.

Whitewash

2014

Eksi Bir poster
NR

Since the dawn of time, humankind has struggled against harsh natural conditions. The drama of Şemsi, who is partially paralyzed and mentally ill, brings together three police officers on duty that night. Şemsi, who was removed from the municipal cultural center where he had gone to warm up, has lost his lower body reflexes and urinates and defecates without realizing it. The officers who took Şemsi into their car were forced to open the doors and windows due to the unpleasant odor, exposing themselves to the harshness of nature. As they searched from place to place throughout the night to find an official institution that could take Şemsi in, the officers found pieces of their own lives in his. The officers' nighttime ordeal with Şemsi would deeply affect them.

Eksi Bir

2017

Love Me Instead poster
6.5

Accompanied by a ward, a prisoner travels to his hometown to reconnect with his daughter and make amends, but a tragic truth mars his journey.

Love Me Instead

2021

Government Woman 2 poster
5.6

Seven years before the first film, Xate, still living in her husband Aziz Veysel’s shadow, is about to become the region’s first female mayor when a routine morning send-off for Aziz turns explosive, reigniting the fierce rivalry between Xate and the power-hungry Faruk. Their conflict escalates further when there’s an unexpected call for snap elections.

Government Woman 2

2013

Take a Deep Breath poster
4.0

A high school student, raised in a modern family, is taken to a gynecologist for a virginity test by her parents. The psychologically and physically traumatizing examination makes her realize she does not have control over her own body. She will do anything she can to take the control back.

Take a Deep Breath

2012

You Know Him poster
6.3

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

Sideway poster
5.4

The residents of a small town set between a stormy sea and an ominous forest are becoming insane. They are convinced that successive signs appearing in the town are indications of doomsday.

Sideway

2017

Behind the camera

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia poster
7.5

A group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

2011

Three Monkeys poster
6.8

A family battles against the odds to stay together when small lies grow into an extravagant cover-up. In order to avoid hardship and responsibilities that would otherwise be impossible to endure, the family chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it. But does playing “Three Monkeys” invalidate the truth of its existence?

Three Monkeys

2008

The Announcement poster
6.1

May 22nd, 1963. Unhappy with the existing social and political situation in Turkey, a group of military officers has planned a coup d’état to take down the government in Ankara. Meanwhile in Istanbul, their conspirators have undertaken the vital mission of taking over the National Radio station and making a formal announcement about the coup. But nothing goes to plan. Faced with a number of obstacles, including a sudden rainstorm, the absence of the radio station technician, a betrayal, the lack of feedback from Ankara and their very own inefficiency, the conspirators scramble to keep their plan on track and announce the success of the coup – that is, if the coup in the capital has taken place at all.

The Announcement

2017

You Know Him poster
6.3

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

You Know Him poster
6.3

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

You Know Him poster
6.3

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

Swing poster
6.3

The last 12 minutes of a young woman in a house on the edge of the city. The radical decision of a woman whose life was made a prison by tradition, violence and poverty...

Swing

2013

After Hazelnut poster
NR

Set in the village of Çiçekpınar in Düzce, the film examines how agricultural labor changed from the 1930s to the 2000s and how the social structure of the village transformed. Before hazelnuts, the villagers of Çiçekpınar lived in a self-sufficient, cooperative, communal social structure. After hazelnuts, however, the community transitioned to a social structure where everyone was responsible for their own work and organized hierarchically. The documentary that tells the story of the transition from a miniature pre-capitalist society to capitalism, exploring how the children of the former laborers, now "bosses," treat their seasonal workers and many other situations.

After Hazelnut

2018

After Hazelnut poster
NR

Set in the village of Çiçekpınar in Düzce, the film examines how agricultural labor changed from the 1930s to the 2000s and how the social structure of the village transformed. Before hazelnuts, the villagers of Çiçekpınar lived in a self-sufficient, cooperative, communal social structure. After hazelnuts, however, the community transitioned to a social structure where everyone was responsible for their own work and organized hierarchically. The documentary that tells the story of the transition from a miniature pre-capitalist society to capitalism, exploring how the children of the former laborers, now "bosses," treat their seasonal workers and many other situations.

After Hazelnut

2018