Cihan Inan
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Cihan Inan was born in Switzerland as the third of five children of Turkish immigrants.
While studying philosophy and German language and literature at the University of Bern, he worked as a projectionist in cinemas in the capital city of Bern and as a film and theater critic.
After university, he worked for two years as an assistant director at the Theater Freiburg in Germany before delivering his first directorial work at the Theater Freiburg in 1999. Since then, he has regularly directed plays throughout the German-speaking world to the present day.
In 2002 he decided to direct the film adaptation of Nick Cave's debut novel "And the Ass Saw the Angel". This project was realized in 2003 at his own expense and with a lot of private funds in Turkey. In the same year the filmed material was stolen at the train station in Freiburg , Germany and remained lost until today.
After this setback, he started working on the script for "180°", which became his first visible feature film. "180°" was released in cinemas on September 2010 and won several international awards at festivals around the world for best film, best director, best screenplay, best music, best actress. He was also as consultant for different movie such as "Kopek" by Esen Isik or documentaries such as "Above and Below" by Nicolas Steiner. He has been artistic director of the Staatstheater in the Swiss capital of Bern since the 2017/18 season.
In September 2018, his second feature film "Zone Rouge" was released in Swiss cinemas - a reunion story set in a single location, a kind of "huis clos" of memories.
After his successful time as artistic director at the State Theatre Bern until 2022, he decided to return to film.
He wrote the screenplay for the film noir psychotriller "Retour" and then began filming in Italy. The global corona pandemic forced him to shoot this violent mother-daughter Huis-Clos story based on the ancient story "Elektra" with a small crew and cast in a remote country house.
His next film is called "Ugly King's Way" based on the non-fiction book "Yol - the way to exile" by Edi Hubschmid and is about the escape of the famous Turkish film director Yilmaz Güney. The film is produced by the production company Umut Pictures, founded 2025 by Edi Hubschmid and Cihan Inan .
The screenplay "Leopard" has already been written and is in the pipeline of the newly founded 'Swiss Studios' and ready for realization. "Leopard" is the incredible story about the life and mysterious death of Swiss businessman Hans-Ulrich Lenzlinger. A quirky and weird personality of the 60s and 70s in Switzerland.
In 2025 he starts writing the screenplay "Village on the Border" based on the 1943 novel by Aline Valangin. A story about the Second World War in Ticino in a little Swiss village on the border to Italy. The focus is on a farm that is run only by women from three generations. Ms. Valangin's precise and unsparing observations and her criticism of Swiss asylum policy at that time is the reason that the novel was not published until 40 years later in 1982.
While studying philosophy and German language and literature at the University of Bern, he worked as a projectionist in cinemas in the capital city of Bern and as a film and theater critic.
After university, he worked for two years as an assistant director at the Theater Freiburg in Germany before delivering his first directorial work at the Theater Freiburg in 1999. Since then, he has regularly directed plays throughout the German-speaking world to the present day.
In 2002 he decided to direct the film adaptation of Nick Cave's debut novel "And the Ass Saw the Angel". This project was realized in 2003 at his own expense and with a lot of private funds in Turkey. In the same year the filmed material was stolen at the train station in Freiburg , Germany and remained lost until today.
After this setback, he started working on the script for "180°", which became his first visible feature film. "180°" was released in cinemas on September 2010 and won several international awards at festivals around the world for best film, best director, best screenplay, best music, best actress. He was also as consultant for different movie such as "Kopek" by Esen Isik or documentaries such as "Above and Below" by Nicolas Steiner. He has been artistic director of the Staatstheater in the Swiss capital of Bern since the 2017/18 season.
In September 2018, his second feature film "Zone Rouge" was released in Swiss cinemas - a reunion story set in a single location, a kind of "huis clos" of memories.
After his successful time as artistic director at the State Theatre Bern until 2022, he decided to return to film.
He wrote the screenplay for the film noir psychotriller "Retour" and then began filming in Italy. The global corona pandemic forced him to shoot this violent mother-daughter Huis-Clos story based on the ancient story "Elektra" with a small crew and cast in a remote country house.
His next film is called "Ugly King's Way" based on the non-fiction book "Yol - the way to exile" by Edi Hubschmid and is about the escape of the famous Turkish film director Yilmaz Güney. The film is produced by the production company Umut Pictures, founded 2025 by Edi Hubschmid and Cihan Inan .
The screenplay "Leopard" has already been written and is in the pipeline of the newly founded 'Swiss Studios' and ready for realization. "Leopard" is the incredible story about the life and mysterious death of Swiss businessman Hans-Ulrich Lenzlinger. A quirky and weird personality of the 60s and 70s in Switzerland.
In 2025 he starts writing the screenplay "Village on the Border" based on the 1943 novel by Aline Valangin. A story about the Second World War in Ticino in a little Swiss village on the border to Italy. The focus is on a farm that is run only by women from three generations. Ms. Valangin's precise and unsparing observations and her criticism of Swiss asylum policy at that time is the reason that the novel was not published until 40 years later in 1982.
