Ayten Kuyululu

Ayten Kuyululu (; 30 August 1930 – 31 May 2019) was a Turkish-Australian film director, actress, opera singer and screenwriter. She was the first woman to direct a feature film in Australia since 1933 with ''The Golden Cage'' (1975).

Early life and career

Kuyululu was born in Istanbul in 1930. As a young woman she was an actress and opera singer, and wrote radio plays. In the mid-1960s she moved to Stockholm, together with her husband Ilhan Kuyululu and their three children. While living in Stockholm she directed a television drama film called ''The Outsiders'' about the lives of migrants in Sweden, and wrote the screenplay for a 1963 Turkish film called '. She also sang with the Royal Swedish Opera.

The family moved to Australia in 1971. After initially working as a department store clerk, Kuyululu joined the chorus of Opera Australia and acted in television shows including ''Matlock Police'', '' Ryan'' and ''Homicide''. Together with her husband she established and ran the Australian Turkish People's Playhouse.

In 1974 she wrote, directed and starred in the 40-minute film ''A Handful of Dust'' about the challenges of a Turkish couple who meet in Sydney. The film was a finalist in the Greater Union Awards at the 1974 Sydney Film Festival. She had received a grant from the Experimental Film Fund to support the work.

''The Golden Cage''

In 1975 Kuyululu directed the 70-minute film ''The Golden Cage'', about a pair of Turkish friends struggling to settle in Australia. She was the first woman in Australia to direct a film since Paulette McDonagh over forty years previously. Kuyululu's husband produced the film and played a starring role. It was supported by a $20,000 grant from the Film and Television Board.

''The Golden Cage'' premiered as part of the 1975 International Women's Film Festival in Sydney, but Kuyululu was unable to find a distributor. One of the challenges was that the film's backers required that the dialogue be in English, which led it to seem inauthentic.

Following ''The Golden Cage'', Kuyululu planned to write and direct a film about the 1915 Battle of Broken Hill. However, she was unable to get funding as a Turkish woman director, and had to engage Donald Crombie to take over as the proposed director, while she continued to intend to write the screenplay. She was however unsuccessful in getting the film made.

Later life and death

Kuyululu returned to live in Sweden in the late 1970s and early 1980s, where she directed and performed in Royal Swedish Opera productions. She returned to Australia in 1985, where she worked in the Australian People's Theatre and formed a Turkish amateur theatre group with her son. In 1989 she wrote and directed the Turkish language film ''Suçlu mu Piyon mu? (Is he Guilty or is he a Pawn?)''.

In 2019 she died in Sydney. David Stratton, writing in ''The Australian'', recorded that at the time of her death she was "almost completely forgotten by the mainstream arts world".

In November 2023, ''The Golden Cage'' will be screened by the Melbourne Cinematheque and ACMI as part of a program focusing on migrant women directors in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s.

References

External links

*

''The Golden Cage''
on Australian Screen Online, includes notes and video clips

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuyululu, Ayten
1930 births
2019 deaths
People from Istanbul
Turkish emigrants to Sweden
Turkish emigrants to Australia
Turkish film directors
Turkish women film directors
Australian film directors
Australian women film directors
20th-century Australian women opera singers
20th-century Turkish women opera singers
20th-century Australian actresses
20th-century Turkish actresses
20th-century Turkish screenwriters
Turkish female screenwriters
Australian women screenwriters
20th-century Australian screenwriters