
İlker Çatak
Directing
Biography
İlker Çatak (born 11 January 1984; Berlin) is a Turkish-German director. İlker Çatak was born in Berlin in 1984 and later lived in Istanbul where he completed high school. İlker studied Film Directing in Berlin and Hamburg, graduating in 2014 at Hamburg Media School. His graduation film SADAKAT received many international awards before winning the Student Academy Award in Gold in 2015. İlker’s first feature film, ONCE UPON A TIME INDIANERLAND debuted in 2017 and is an adaptation of the award-winning youth novel ‘Es war einmal Indianerland’ by Nils Mohl. İlker’s second feature film I WAS, I AM, I WILL BE (2019) received the Bronze Lola at the German Film Awards. His feature film STAMBUL GARDEN was released in Germany in autumn 2021 and also selected at the German Film Awards. İlker’s other projects include directing an episode on the TV show TATORT. His latest film THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE will have its world premiere at the 73. Berlin Film Festival and hit theatres in May 2023.
Known For

Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss, crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.
Scene of the Crime

400 years into the future, disease has wiped out the majority of the world's population, except one walled city, Bregna, ruled by a congress of scientists. When Æon Flux, the top operative in the underground 'Monican' rebellion, is sent on a mission to kill a government leader, she uncovers a world of secrets.
Æon Flux

When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.
The Teachers' Lounge

The marriage of Derya and Aziz is under pressure after losing their jobs because of state arbitrariness and moving to Istanbul to live with Aziz's parents. They and their 13-year-old daughter Ezgi have to redefine their way of life.
Yellow Letters

Many years after her notorious husband, Henry Fool, fled after killing a neighbor, Fay Grim receives a visit from CIA agent Fulbright, who tells her that Henry is dead, but that some of his journals have been unearthed in France. She sets forth on a globe-trotting odyssey that soon leads to the discovery that he is alive, and his journals are more than they appear to be.
Fay Grim

Florian and Marie want to spend a cozy evening on the sofa watching a movie. But that's more difficult than expected: the couple navigate through a digital world full of streaming portals, voucher codes, delivery service apps and broken remote controls and keep tripping over themselves in the process.
Home Entertainment

Janik and Samuel are best friends and enjoy the end of high school. Their worlds are different: Janik has parents who always do everything right, while Samuel comes from a broken home. Samuel wants order, Janik wants chaos. A thoughtless moment puts the close bond between the two friends in jeopardy. As they set off on their long-planned trip to Istanbul, the boys are looking to save their friendship, enjoy their freedom and try out a new life.
Blurred Lines

A wild genre mix between a boxer film, urban western, road movie and music video, set at end of the summer holidays in a drab neighborhood in the outskirts of Hamburg suburbia. Young boxing talent Mauser is preparing for a pivotal competition when his father kills his step-mother and flees. Trying to find his father, Mauser embarks on a journey through the world of music, psychedelia, violence, love and a biblical thunderstorm. And what is with the Native American? "Once upon a time in Indian country" is a story that radiates both, heat and poetry.
Once Upon a Time in Indian Country

One day in Europe shows stories set in four European countries. All of them involve thievery in some way or the other. The protagonists are strangers in the respective country. For none of them their stay turns out as planned.
One Day in Europe

Istanbul 2014: Aslı gives shelter to a young political activist, who got into a fight with the police. The police investigates the case and ends up questioning Aslı's family. Her husband gets drawn into the affair. Their lives, and also their son's, start to become compromised. The situation escalates, as Aslı is not willing to cooperate with the investigators.
Fidelity

While Kurdish gigolo Baran dreams of a future in Europe, German pilot Marion is struggling to come to terms with her cancer diagnosis. When the two meet at the Turkish holiday resort of Marmaris, they engage in a kind of double-cross and decide to enter into a sham marriage. After a promising beginning, a shared future seems well within their reach. But things turn out not to be quite as simple as that.
I Was, I Am, I Will Be
The seemingly too good to be true love story of a crazy young couple in Istanbul.
Eskimo Frosch

Thomas is a pickpocket and he's good at it. When he meets Violca, he changes targets. Unfortunately, he also stole from her.
Old School
Documentary dealing with four generations of Turkish migration in Berlin, Germany.
Mehrzahl Heimat
Three youths in a supermarket, trying to waste their time. The game they play is to tell a story's missing beginning, but the story told might hold more truth than fiction. One girl, two guys. That is one too much. So naturally there is mistrust, murder, suicide and some supermarket shopping.
Fast Fiktion

Yusuf's everyday life is dominated by routine. He has made himself comfortable in his life between television and computer and is happy that way. But the people around him try to get him out of his beloved routine. His working wive and his buddy Tamer make him go on a fishing trip on the frozen lake. He reluctantly agrees to go, but once there, he gets a chance to restore his image as the provider and head of family.
When Namibia Was a City...
Film adaptation of the David Szalay novel.
Flesh
Ayda has just arrived in Germany and lives on her own in her new colorless world. She doesn't communicate too well.
Ayda
Young and successful Ali from Istanbul leaves the big city to go search for a lucrative piece of land on a sparsely populated island. Unfortunately he is immediately confronted with problems: "No Ferry Today" says a handwritten piece of paper at the gates of the port. In his hurry to somehow get to the island he meets an old fisherman called Memo. Ali offers Memo money to take him to the island, but Memo is satisfied with a cigarette. But since Memo is the captain, he decides the pace of the boat and thus paces the hectic Ali down as well as the story. The differences between the two men seem to be huge at first sight, but when you depend on one another, huge differences become tiny.
Between Borders

Frank and Magdalena happily move into their new flat. Then they make a discovery: in one of the rooms time seems to pass differently than outside of it. While Magdalena is scared of the possible dangers, Frank starts to use the room obsessively. The two begin to drift apart.