Screening Dates: 25 February 2026, Wednesday, 8:00 pm / 24 March 2026, Tuesday, 8:00 pm

Director: Mehmet Muhtar
Screenplay: Ümit Deniz, Turgut Demirağ; based on a work by Ali Rıza Seyfi
Cast: Annie Ball, Atıf Kaptan, Bülent Oran, Ayfer Feray, Kadri Ögelman, Cahit Irgat
Producer: Turgut Demirağ (And Film)
Cinematography & Editing: Özen Sermet
Production Design: Sohban Koloğlu

Turkey / 1953 / 102 min / Black & White / Turkish / English subtitles

Dracula in Istanbul, the earliest surviving Turkish horror film, is adapted for the screen from the 1928 Turkish novel Kazıklı Voyvoda by Ali Rıza Seyfi—a localization of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that also served as a source text for Nosferatu (1922, F. W. Murnau). With its successfully localized screenplay, Ümit Deniz was awarded the Film Friends Association’s prize for “Best Screenplay.”

Count Dracula seeks to purchase numerous properties in Istanbul through his lawyer Azmi. When Azmi discovers that Dracula is in fact a vampire (referred to in the film as a “hortlak”), he attempts to kill him. Dracula’s escape and subsequent arrival in Istanbul spell grave danger for Azmi’s fiancée Güzin and her cousin Şadan.

Dracula in Istanbul is the third film in Sinematek/Sinema Evi’s restoration project, carried out with the sponsorship of Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi. Despite the director’s limited filmography, the film has achieved cult status among cinephiles thanks to its set design, cinematography, editing that sustains suspense throughout, and sound design. We are delighted to reunite audiences with a cinematically significant work—one whose 35mm prints had suffered considerable damage—in its newly restored form.

*The film’s nitrate-based original negative has been preserved to this day in the archive of the Prof. Sami Şekeroğlu Cinema–Television Research and Application Center at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. After the physical restoration of the negatives was completed at Atlas Post Production, high-resolution scanning was carried out at the Cinema–TV Center. Digital restoration and all post-production processes were also completed at Atlas Post Production. Special thanks to the rights holder Melike Demirağ.