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Mehmet Aktaş

Mehmet Aktaş (born 1966 in Iğdır, Turkey) is a Kurdish filmmaker, producer, author, and journalist. He was born in Turkey but currently resides in Germany. Aktaş is the founder and chief executive of the film production and distribution company, Mîtosfilm, based in Berlin.

In the mid-1990s, Aktaş moved to Germany after completing his studies at law school in Istanbul. While in Germany, he noticed that German audiences often disregarded cinema from the Near East, particularly Kurdish cinema. To address this, Aktaş founded the first Kurdish Film Festival in Germany in 2002, which was supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.

With Mîtosfilm, Aktaş has produced feature films such as ''Close up Kurdistan'' (2007) directed by Yüksel Yavuz, ''Land of Legend'' (2008) directed by Rahim Zabihi, and ''Après la Chute'' (2009) directed by Hiner Saleem. In 2009, Aktaş was successful as the producer of ''No One Knows About Persian Cats'' directed by Bahman Ghobadi, which was honored at the Cannes Film Festival with the award ''Un Certain Regard''.

Mîtosfilm also functions as a film distribution company, focusing on new Turkish, Kurdish, Iraqi and Iranian auteur cinema. Since 2004, Mîtosfilm has released films in German cinemas, including ''Turtles Can Fly'' (2004), ''Two Girls from Istanbul'' (2005), ''Süt'' (2008), and ''Min Dît'' (2010). These films illustrate Aktaş's political aspiration to provide a more authentic image of life in the Near East than what is typically portrayed in the news.

Mehmet Aktaş also wrote the screenplay for Hisham Zaman's second feature film ''Letter to the King'' (2014), which received the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at the Göteborg Film Festival in 2014. Mîtosfilm's latest production ''Memories on Stone'' (2014) directed by Shawkat Amin Korki and written by Aktaş and Korki was awarded Best Film from the Arab World at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2014. Korki won the prize for Best Director at the Cinedays Skopje – 13th Festival of European Film. ''Memories on Stone'' was released in Swiss cinemas by the distributor Trigon Film in November 2014.

Since then, Aktaş has produced and executive produced several features and documentaries, including ''The Legend of the Ugly King'' by Hüseyin Tabak, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017. ''The Rain Bride'' (2022) by Hussein Hassan premiered at the Göteborg Film Festival in 2023.

His latest production ''In the Blind Spot'' (2023) by Ayşe Polat premiered at the 73rd Berlinale in the section Encounters. The political thriller went on to win four awards at the 42nd Istanbul Film Festival, including the Golden Tulip for Best Feature and Best Screenplay.

Since 2011, Aktaş has also served as the artistic director for the Duhok International Film Festival. Provided by Wikipedia