Screening Dates: Friday, December 12, 2025, 8:00 p.m. / Thursday, December 25, 2025, 8:00 p.m. / Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 8:00 p.m.

Director: Mehmet Muhtar
Screenplay: Ümit Deniz, Turgut Demirağ, Ali Rıza Seyfi (novel)
Cast: Annie Ball, Atıf Kaptan, Bülent Oran, Ayfer Feray, Kadri Ögelman, Cahit Irgat
Producer: Turgut Demirağ (And Film)
Cinematographer and Editor: Özen Sermet
Art Director: Sohban Koloğlu

Turkey / 1953 / 102 min. / Black and White / Turkish / English Subtitles

Dracula in Istanbul, our oldest surviving horror film, is adapted from the novel Kazıklı Voyvoda (published by Kamer Yayınları in 1997 as Drakula İstanbul’da), which is the 1928 Turkish translation by Ali Rıza Seyfi of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, which was also adapted into Nosferatu (1922, F.W. Murnau). Ümit Deniz won the Film Lovers’ Association’s “Best Screenplay” award for the film’s script, which was successfully localized.

Count Dracula wants to buy many houses in Istanbul through his lawyer Azmi. However, Azmi, who learns that Dracula is actually a vampire (referred to as a “hortlak” in the film), tries to kill the count. Dracula escapes Azmi, and his arrival in Istanbul puts Azmi’s fiancée Güzin and his cousin Şadan in great danger.

Dracula in Istanbul is the third film of our restoration project which we carry out as Sinematek/Sinema Evi, sponsored by Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi. Although the director has made very few films, this film has achieved cult status among cinema lovers thanks to its set design, cinematography, editing that keeps the tension alive, and sound design. The film showcases meticulous set and costume design, and effects that would have been extremely difficult to achieve with the technical capabilities of the era were successfully implemented. 

We are delighted to reunite this artistically valuable film, whose 35mm copies were severely damaged, with its audience in its restored form.

*The 35mm copy of the film was preserved in the archives of the Mimar Sinan University Cinema - Television Institute until today, where it was scanned. The physical and digital restoration was carried out at Atlas Post-Production. We would like to thank Melike Demirağ (And Film), the copyright holder.