Anam – Meine Mutter (My Mother)
color, Germany, Buket Alakuş, 86 Min, 2001 With actors Nursel Köse and Saskia Vester. Anam is a 40-year-old traditional Turkish wife and mother who lives with her family in Germany, where she works as a cleaning lady. When Anam finds out that her 20-year-old son Deniz has drifted into the drug scene and that […]
Alles wird gut (Everything’s Gonna Be Great)
With actors Kati Stüdemann and Chantal De Freitas Nabou, an Afro-German slacker, desperatly wants to win back her club kid ex-girlfriend Katja. Nabou becomes a housekeeper for Katja’s neighbor, Kim, who is a workaholic that is striving to become a partner in an advertising agency. A refreshing romantic comedy with the ingredients of a classic […]
Abschied von Gestern (Yesterday Girl)
With actors Hans Brammer and Ursula Dirichs Anita G. is a young East German woman who comes to West Germany in hopes of a better life. With no real home and no job, she gets into trouble with the law when she steals and is sent to prison. After her sentence, she has difficulty adjusting […]
Auf der anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven)
Produced by Andreas Thiel; with actors Baki Davrak, Patrycia Ziolkowska, Nursel Köse, Hanna Schygulla, Tuncel Kurtiz, Nurguel Yesilcay; available on DVD in Germany and US Review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Ying Ruan: Auf der anderen Seite is a German-Turkish drama directed by Faith Akin in 2007. The movie follows stories of six people from either Germany or […]
100 pour cent Arabica (100% Arabica)
Produced by Mahmoud Zemmouri With actors Khaled, Cheb Mami, Mouss, Najim Laouariga, Fard Fedjer, Youssef Diawara, Patrice Thibaud, Mohamed Camara available on DVD in the US and France Set in a rent-controlled Paris suburb populated entirely by North Africans, this comedy of music and cross-culturalism centers on a battle waged between the neighborhood youth, who […]
Anita and Me
With actors Max Beesley, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Anna Brewster, Kathy Burke, Ayesha Dharker, Omid Djalili, Alex Freeborn, Lynn Redgrave, Zohra Segal, Meera Syal, Christine Tremarco, Chandeep Uppal, Mark Williams Anita and Me (2002) tells the coming of age story of Meena, a 12-year-old Indian girl growing up in the West Midlands of England. Meena listens to […]
Angst essen Seele auf (Ali: Fears Eats the Soul)
With actors Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin Available on VHS with English subtitles in USA Rainer Werner Fassbinder, already the director of almost twenty films by the age of twenty-nine, paid homage to his cinematic hero, Douglas Sirk, with this updated version of Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows. Lonely widow Emmi […]