Wednesday,
May 12 ~ Sunday, May 16, 2004
Young
Turks of the German Cinema
 This
unusual series includes a generous sampling of bitter, fresh,
zany, and touching films from a “new wave” of contemporary Turkish-German
directors. These young men and women question their identities
and their sense of belonging as they move between Germany
and Turkey,
challenging the culture of their parents, creating road movies
of alienation, and dealing with sexual discovery. Over the last
thirty years, the Turkish diaspora has grown to more than two
and a half million people in Germany.
It is a community that has established a dynamic ethnic and
urban presence and formed a curious and exciting blend of cultural
identities. Showcasing their assimilation in a flurry of documentaries,
shorts, and feature films, this new generation of Turkish-Germans
has migrated once again: this time within the artistic landscape,
using new visual tools to shape their identities as part of
a new culture and new generation.
This
program is co-presented with the Goethe Institute of New
York City.
Wednesday,
May 12 at 8:00
PM
We
Forgot to Go Back
dir.
Fatih
Akin, German, 2000, 16mm, 60 mins, color, German w/ English
subtitles
This
affectionate and insightful documentary is a cinematic family
album that records the director’s relatives in Hamburg and Turkey
in
order to explore notions
of
homeland, the desire to belong, and the ability to move between
two cultures. Akin’s father is a Turkish immigrant who established
a successful new life as a secular and liberal citizen in his
new German homeland and who has never managed to go back “home.”
The son, born in Germany and unfettered by his father’s ambivalence,
makes a trip back to the town of his father’s birth, finding
that answers to the question of identity and homeland are decidedly
nuanced and fluid.
Preceded
by
Weed
dir.
Fatih Akin,
Germany,
1996, 16mm, 12 mins, color, German w/ English subtitles
Weed
tells the story of
a German immigrant who spends the summer holidays with his mother
at the sea coast. Luring a recent acquaintance to the cottage
with the promise of drugs, what he actually offers are literal
weeds from his mother’s garden—a substitute that proves surprisingly
effective. Amusing vignettes combine with drama in this small
film that eschews heroes and villains to look simply at life’s
survivors.
Thursday,
May 13 at 8:00
PM
Lola
and Billy the Kid
dir.
Kutlug Ataman,
Germany,
1998, 16mm, 93 mins, color, German and Turkish w/ English subtitles
 Kutlug
Ataman’s highly charged thriller takes us into the shadowy world
of Berlin’s gay Turkish émigrés, who live lives of constant
double jeopardy due to the extreme homophobia within their own
ethnic culture and the xenophobia of German society at large.
This compelling film is at once a tale of family tragedy and
a rare look
at
Berlin's notable Turkish immigrant transvestite community. Ataman
began his filmmaking career in Turkey but left after being detained
and tortured for shooting Super-8mm footage of political events
leading up to the 1980 coup.
Friday,
May 14 at 8:00
PM
Tour
Abroad
dir.
Ayse Polat,
Germany,
1998, 16mm, 91 mins, color, German w/ English subtitles
Senay
is an ornery eleven-year-old girl whose father has just died.
Zeki is a gay Turkish cabaret singer who responds to her plight.
Together, this odd couple travels through Europe
in search of the orphan
girl’s family. Tour Abroad is a tender story of friendship
in an unfriendly world, where lonely people must support each
other in cruel and corrupt surroundings. A mix of humor, glitz,
and sensitivity, the film follows the couple as Zeki rediscovers
some of his own lost humanity and Senay comes to realize, after
finding her mother, that her real identity must reside in herself
and not in her parentage.
Preceded
by
Sevda
Means Love
dir.
Sinan Akkus,
Germany,
2000, 16mm, 14 mins, color, German w/ English subtitles
Traditional
Turkish moral codes meet contemporary cultural norms and youthful
desire in this O. Henry–like tale of love and machismo. Adran
and Sevda must keep their relationship secret from Sevda’s furiously
protective older brother. The tables, however, are turned when
Adran learns the brother has been secretly seeing his own sister.
Saturday,
May 15 at 8:00
PM
Dealer
dir.
Thomas Arslan, Germany
, 1998, 16mm,
80 mins, color, German and Turkish w/ English subtitles
Can
and his girlfriend, Jale, live with their young daughter in
a tough Turkish neighborhood of Berlin
and barely manage to scrape
enough money together for their existence. Can is a small-time
dealer and errand-boy for drug boss Hakan. Jale works in the
warehouse of a department store and has been pressing him to
give up his life of petty crime. The two see a bright new beginning
when Hakan offers Can the chance to run a bar, but it seems
impossible to escape the confines of aggression and mistrust
in this compressed urban microcosm. Director Arslan creates
a static and claustrophobic Berlin
of run-down industrial
courtyards and dark hallways to portray a state of mind mirrored
in its social milieu.
Sunday,
May 16 at 7:00
PM
German
Cops
dir.
Aysun Bademsoy,
Germany,
1999, 16mm, 60 mins, color, German w/ English subtitles
In
this fascinating documentary, director Aysun Bademsoy observes
“foreign” policemen in the city of Berlin
—men of Yugoslavian and
Turkish background who have come to terms with their own cultural,
social, and sometimes moral conflicts but still must face being
seen as “traitors” to their own people and to the established
values of their cultures. Bademsoy successfully balances the
nuances
of
conflict that erupt as these men move between highly incompatible
cultures, trapped in a dilemma to which no simple resolution
can be found.
Preceded
by
The
Lovers of Hotel Osman
dir.
Idil Üner,
Germany,
2001, 16mm, 14 mins, color, German w/ English subtitles
 Playing
the game of cultural identity is the theme of this short film,
which follows a pair of young lovers from Berlin
to Istanbul.
Booked in a Turkish hotel that has strict codes regarding cohabitation,
the quarreling couple attract the attention of the authorities.
They manage to turn their lover’s spat into a classic Turkish
husband-wife fracas, thus eluding detection and convincing everyone
they must truly be married.
$6.00
general admission, $5.00 I House members, students and seniors.
Available one hour before showtime at the International House
box office.
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