A thriller based on Christianity

Who is Atilla Dorsay?

Atilla Dorsay. He was born in 1939 in Karşıyaka, İzmir. He spent his childhood during the difficult war years. He remembers those years when everything was rationed, war news broadcast on the radio, and war movies that constituted his first cinema experiences.

When he was 10 years old, his family immigrated to Istanbul just to send him to Galatasaray High School. Thus, he grew up with French culture.

He studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts (now Mimar Sinan University). He says that he owes his aesthetic view, which he maintains under all circumstances in life, to this foundation.

He worked as a guide, journalist and critic.

He continued his writings in Cumhuriyet newspaper, which he started in 1966, for 27 years.

He married Leman Dorsay in this December. She had two children and three grandchildren.

In the following years, he left the Republic voluntarily. He worked as a magazine writer for Milliyet for a short time and still continues.

He had the pleasure of creating a brand new newspaper in the New Century. He later continued his career in Sabah newspaper. He left here, in his own words, “with a principled attitude”: To keep a promise he made to his readers in one of his articles, “If there is no Emek, I am out of business”, about Emek cinema.

Since 2013, Dorsay has been writing for T24, which he points out with the words: “Free, unfettered, without any restrictions on subject, place or time… But now without a salary!.. And very soon, he will complete ten years…”

Dorsay made efforts in many fields related to culture and arts. He worked at İKSV and took part in the Istanbul Cinema Festival for years. He presented countless celebrities around the world at press conferences, gave interviews and took photographs.

He both made weekly music programs and presented films on TRT. Especially in 1995, when the 100th anniversary of cinema was celebrated, and afterwards, he introduced countless classics together with his young colleagues such as Murat Özer, Alin Taşçıyan, Müjde Işıl.

He founded the Cinema Writers Association (SİYAD) and served as its president for many years. He presented the award nights with carefully selected presenters and musicians. Again in his own words; “When the time came, he did not neglect to leave all these duties to his young friends.”

Dorsay’s greatest productions are his books. Since the 1970s, he collected all the films he criticized in many books, classifying them as Turkish and foreign cinema. These books are an overview of the last 50 years.

At the same time, Istanbul, Beyoğlu, urbanism; He also wrote biographies (especially Türkan Şoray and Yılmaz Güney), interviews, travel notes, stories and even poems.

He published a work in which he presented his interest in music together with a magnificent archive. This book, published under the title “What Syrup Candy Songs Were They”, tells the history of 20th century pop-music.

The book, Discussions, Polemics, Quarrels, was published in September 2022.

The number of his books has now exceeded 60, but he has countless more projects. Finally, T24 Articles – Towards Pandemic Days: Art and Politics met with readers in October 2023. Many more will follow. As he said, “If God wills it!”…