Background
Ustaoğlu was born in Çaykara in eastern Turkey and grew up in Trabzon on the Black Sea.
Ustaoğlu was born in Çaykara in eastern Turkey and grew up in Trabzon on the Black Sea.
After studying architecture at the Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul, she worked as an architect, then as a journalist and a film critic. Before she made her feature film debut The Trace (Iz) in 1994, she had made several award-winning short films. The Trace was entered into the 19th Moscow International Film Festival.
Ustaoğlu received international recognition for her next film, Journey to the Sun (Güneşe Yolculuk), which told a story of a frendship between a Turk and a Kurd.