Ferzan Ozpetek was born in Istanbul. He has been living in Rome since 1976. The highly successful feature he wrote and directed in 1997, STEAM: THE TURKISH BATH, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Following this in 1999 with HAREM SUARE and in 2001 with THE IGNORANT FAIRIES, he quickly became one of Europe’s most talked about directors and consolidated his reputation with several more features, including: FACING WINDOWS (2003), SACRED HEART (2005), SATURN IN OPPOSITION (2007), A PERFECT DAY (2008), LOOSE CANNONS (2010), A MAGNIFICENT PRESENCE (2012), and FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS (2014).
His film ISTANBUL RED (Rosso Istanbul) was issued on 3 March 2017. It's based on Ozpetek's book of the same name. Ozpetek's films have been shown in many countries around the world and won numerous prestigious awards. In 2008, a retrospective of his work was held at MoMa in New York.