Can Togay was born the son of
Turkish parents. He grew up in
Budapest,
Hungary and
Leipzig,
East Germany. In 1969, he joined the
Péter Halász theatre troupe in Budapest. Between 1973 and 1978, he studied German and English literature and linguistics at
Eötvös Loránd University in
Budapest, followed by two years of post-graduate work on German-French comparative linguistics with
Jean-Marie Zemb at
Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. He graduated in 1980. In 1984, he received a degree in film directing from the
University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, he was a student of
Zoltán Fábri. In 1991 he moved to
Finland for four years. His 1992 film
A nyaraló was screened in the
Un Certain Regard section at the
1992 Cannes Film Festival. In 1978, his poems were published in Mozgó Világ (Moving World). In 2004, his first volume of poetry was released by the publisher, Aranykor Kiadó (Golden Age Publisher). He conceived the idea of the
Holocaust Memorial
Cipők a Duna-parton (
Shoes on the Danube Promenade) in Budapest that was realised with artist
Gyula Pauer. Between January 1, 2008 and October 1, 2014, he was head of
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, the Hungarian Institute for Science and Culture in
Berlin; he was also the
cultural attaché at the Hungarian Embassy in the German capital. == Works ==