Fuad Kavur (born 1950 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a British opera and film director and producer.
Fuad came to London in 1963 when his uncle, Kemal N. Kavur, was the Turkish ambassador. Fuad comes from a family of diplomats: one paternal uncle, Kemal N. Kavur, served as ambassador to Finland, Bulgaria, the Soviet Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland; another, Sadi Kavur, was ambassador to Yugoslavia, Sweden and Portugal.
Fuad went to Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London, and later studied International Relations at University College London. However, straight after university, Kavur went into arts. In 1973, he directed the British premiere of Gottfried von Einem's opera Der Prozeß, based on Franz Kafka's novel, The Trial, at Bloomsbury Theatre. Fuad then worked at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as assistant to John Copley. From 1977, Fuad collaborated exclusively with Sir Peter Ustinov on opera productions at the Paris Opera, Hamburg State Opera, La Scala (Milan), the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 1978, Fuad directed the revival of Wagner's Ring Cycle at Washington's Seattle Opera in a production originally created by George London (1975)
In 1984 Fuad produced the feature film Memed, My Hawk (also known as The Lion and the Hawk), based on the novel MEMED, MY HAWK by Yashar Kemal. It was directed by Sir Peter Ustinov and starred Ustinov, Herbert Lom, Simon Dutton, Siobhan McKenna, Michael Elphick and Denis Quilley. Memed My Hawk had a royal premiere in London in the aid of UNICEF. However, both the filming and screening of Memed My Hawk was (and still is) banned in Turkey by the government as "communist propaganda". ("Observer" newspaper, Guardian, the Times, "Censorship" magazine, May 1984) Fuad was a company director of Peter Ustinov Productions Ltd. from 1982 to 1992. In 2001, he was the executive producer of Atatürk, a television documentary on Kemal Ataturk, directed by Tolga Ornek and narrated by Sir Donald Sinden.
As of 2011, Fuad has been preparing a feature film, also based on the life of Atatürk, scheduled to shoot in Hungary, in association with KORDA STUDIOS, in June 2013. The screenplay is written by Fuad Kavur who will also direct. The film is produced by the Academy Award-winning Jonathan Sanger (The Elephant Man, The Producers, Vanilla Sky) and Ed Elbert (Anna and the King). The cinematographer will be the Academy Award-winning Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter). Executive producer is Anthony Waye, of the last nine BOND films.
In January 2010 at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), London University, in the presence of HE the Turkish Ambassador, Yigit Alpogan, Fuad Kavur gave a talk on Ataturk, with Dr Andrew Mango, the eminent Ataturk scholar and biographer. Kavur's talk focused on the use Ataturk made of Jewish scientists, academics and artists, on the run from Hitler's Germany, by offering them a home in the newly formed Turkish Republic, to the benefit of the Turkish nation.