Feriha "Feri" Cansel (7 July 1944 – 2 September 1983) was a

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,00 ...

actress. She was born in

Lefkoşa Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaori ...

(

Nicosia Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaor ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

and spent her early youth in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, acquiring

British citizenship British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...

and she became a

hairdresser A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A Hairdresser may also be refe ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Once settled in Turkey, she also obtained Turkish citizenship, marrying for convenience the

janitor A janitor (American English, Scottish English), also known as a custodian, porter, cleanser, cleaner or caretaker, is a person who cleans and maintains buildings. In some cases, they will also carry out maintenance and security duties. A simil ...

of the block of apartments in İstanbul where she lived concluding for that purpose. She started in show business as a stage

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...

, and she appeared in her first film in 1964. She was the mother of actress Zümrüt Cansel.

Career

She started her acting career with secondary roles in

Turkish cinema Cinema of Turkey or Turkish cinema (also old known as ''Yeşilçam'' literally means ''The Green Pine'' in Turkish language), () or Türk sineması is the sobriquet that refers to the Turkish film art and industry. It is an important part of ...

's mainstream movies, and who attained fame after she started to appear in ''seks filmleri'', a particular genre of which had developed in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in the mid-1970s to last until the eve of the 1980s. Her name became synonymous with the then rising wave of films of the genre, with a much reduced story line and a soft- to mid-

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

pornographical content arranged to match the tastes of local audiences often disguised as

comedy films A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the olde ...

. According to the Sinematürk database of Turkish films, Feri Cansel's career spanned 18 years during which she acted in 136 films. 120 of these films can be categorized as belonging in the

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scul ...

line. Cansel herself, on the other hand, claimed in 1978 that she had by then appeared in 350 erotic movies. Both figures could make Cansel win the career-long title for the highest number of erotic Turkish movies made by any actor/actress. The difference between the two figures is explained by the extensive practice at the time by the

film producers A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, dir ...

, who viewed films that were shot not as parts of a single work but merely as source material for production of multiple films, to cut and paste. Erotic scenes, especially, were often cut and pasted to assemble new films from various parts of existing ones. This peculiar practice was called "parça" (''literally the "fragment"''), and the term was extended into the

movie theaters A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

themselves to include the practice by the operators of inserting hardcore material, which was

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an most of the time, into Turkish "erotic" films. Cansel's liberal use of foul language in her films earned her the nickname of

Emmanuelle Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French erotic films based on the main character in the novel ''Emmanuelle'' (1959), created by Emmanuelle Arsan. Character history Emmanuelle appeared as the pen name of Marayat Rollet-Andrian ...

of Kasımpaşa, a popular quarter of Istanbul notorious for its peculiar speech rich in

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...

. She was killed by her fiancé in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

in 1983. Cansel was survived by her daughter Zumrut Cansel who also embarked on a brief acting career after the murder of her mother.

References

External links

IMDb

Sinematürk database

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cansel, Feri People from Nicosia 1944 births 1983 deaths 20th-century Cypriot actresses Cypriot murder victims British people of Turkish Cypriot descent 20th-century Turkish actresses Cypriot film actresses People murdered in Turkey 1983 murders in Turkey