Turkey bids farewell to famed director Okten

Turkey mourned Zeki Okten, one of the most prolific names in Turkish cinema, after the director's sudden death on Saturday. Okten, 68, died at Istanbul's American Hospital, where he had been recovering from cardiovascular surgery. President Abdullah Gul, Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin, and Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay all expressed their grief at his passing, calling it a major loss for Turkish cinema. Born in Istanbul in 1941, Okten worked as an assistant director with such staples of Turkish cinema as Omer Lutfi Akad, Halit Refig, Memduh Un, and Atif Yilmaz. His first feature directing effort, "Ölüm Pazarı" (Market of Death), came out in 1963. But his first major success as a director was in 1973 with "Bir Demet Menekşe" (A Bunch of Violets). One of his most famous films, "The Herd," (Sürü) a joint effort with Yilmaz Guney, brought him nine international awards, including best film at the 1979 Locarno Film Festival and the 1980 Antwerp International Film Festival. "The Enemy," also written by Güney and co-directed by Ökten and Güney, was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 1980 Berlin Film Festival.