Takva (Gottesfurcht, A Man’s Fear of God)
color, Turkey, Özer Kiziltan, 96 Min, 2006 With actors Erkan Can, Meray Ülgen, and Güven Kiraç. A tale of the corruption of religious authority, “Takva” (the Arabic word for “fear of god”) follows humble and devout Sufi Muharrem (Can), who receives a promotion from the Sheikh (Ülgen) of his religious order to become the rent collector […]
Soul Kitchen
With actors Adam Bousdoukos, Moritz Bleibtreu, and Birol Ünel. When Zinos Kazantsakis (Bousdoukos), chef at a struggling locals-only restaurant in Hamburg, is rendered unable to cook by a back injury, he stirs things up by hiring a more talented chef Shayn Weiss (Ünel) who insists on revamping the menu to haute cuisine. Juggling the tax […]
Sommer in Mezra (Summer in Mezra)
With actors Hussi Kutlucan and Abdurrahman Selvitop. Sick of urban life and his family in Berlin, Süleyman (writer-director Kutlucan) travels to his hometown in Anatolia in search of adventure. Looking for excitement with his uncle, Arzuman (Selvitop), he fails to heed the warning of a shepherd and sets off on a search for hidden treasure. […]
Solino
With actors Moritz Bleibtreu, Barnaby Metschurat, Gigi Savoia, Patrycia Ziolkowska, and Antonella Attili. 20 years after Romano Amato (Savoia), his wife Rosa (Attili) move their family from Italy to Germany, the two sons Giancarlo (Bleibtreu) and Gigi (Metschurat) have a falling-out over their love for the same woman, their childhood friend Jo (Ziolkowska), leaving the […]
Sivas
With actors Doğan İzci, Hasan Özdemir and Ozan Çelik. Aslan (İzci), a young Turkish boy, befriends a fighting dog named Sivas. His brother Şahin takes him to watch the dogfights, and one day, when Sivas is wounded and left for dead, Aslan convinces his brother to let him take Sivas home with them. Aslan cares for the […]
Shirins Hochzeit (Shirin’s Wedding)
With actors Ayten Erten, Jürgen Prochnow, Aras Ören, and Aliki Georgouli. Shirin (Erten), a young Turkish woman, leaves Anatolia in search of Mahmud, to whom she was betrothed as a child, traveling first to Cologne, where she finds work and hopes to find him. Buoyed by the support of her colleagues, she begins to adapt […]
Sensin – Du bist es!
With actors Fatih Akin and Adam Bousdoukos. Fatih Akin’s first film, this short comedy won the Audience Award at the International Short Film Festival Hamburg in 1996. Kubilei, a young Turkish man in Hamburg, Germany, knows his dream woman will love three things: Marlboro, punk, and Robert de Niro. She also has to be Turkish… […]
Schattenboxer (Shadowboxer)
color, Germany, Lars Becker, 77 Min, 1992 With actors Diego Wallraff, Christian Redl, and Alfred Kleinheinz. When incarcerated gangster Eddi (Wallraff) finds out his new friend Timbe (Kleinheinz), a deserter from an African country where he faces a death sentence, is being deported, they hatch a plan to stop his deportation that brings them face […]
Saniyes Lust (Saniye’s Passion)
With actors Idil Üner and Daniel Krauss. The German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) graduation film of Verena S. Freytag, credited pseudonymously as Sülbiye Günar, originally aired on ZDF television and follows the travails of a young couple, Turkish-German Saniye (Üner) and her husband Tom (Krauss) as they try to solve their marital problems by getting […]
Salami Aleikum
With actors Navid Navid, Anna Böger, and Michael Niavarani. Mohsen Taheri (Navid), an Iranian-German butcher’s son is on his way to Poland to acquire sheep in a bid to save his father’s business. Along the way, he stops in a small town in eastern Germany where he falls for a local German woman, Ana (Böger) […]