With Pegah Ferydoni, Christoph Maria Herbst, Vedat Erincin, Christoph Letkowski. Shot and set in Cologne, Aladağ’s comedy of culture shock and integration follows the efforts of the leader of a Turkish diaspora communit,y, Cengiz Demirkan (Vedat Erincin), to find Turkish brides for the men of the community. Dr. Ludwig Sarheimer (Christoph Maria Herbst) runs the immigration…

With actors Hülya Koçyiğit, Rahmi Saltuk, Mine Tokgöz, and Suavi Eren. Serif Gören’s pioneering production is the first major attempt by a Turkish filmmaker to address the theme of migration to Germany. Mostly shot in Berlin, the film follows Güldane (Hülya Koçyiğit), a Turkish guest worker in Germany whose unlikely marriage of convenience with a man…

Directors Gülseren Suzan and Jochen Menzel’s documentary about Anatolian folk music pays tribute to the poet and singer Aşık Veysel. Links: YouTube (Clip) Genre(s): Documentary

Produced by Dionysis Samiotis, Anastasios Vasiliou With actors Stathis Papadopoulos, Costas Kotsianidis, Panayiotis Hartomatzidis, Dimitris Papoulidis Available on DVD in the US and Germany A group of young “Pontioi” (Greek Russians from the coast of the Black Sea) descend on megalopolis Athens where alienation and poverty leads to petty crime and boredom. Young Sasha, the…

Aprilkinder refers to the children of the Turkish guest workers in Germany, most of whom are born in April simply because they are conceived in July during the father’s annual trip back to Turkey. Cem works in a sausage factory to support the family. His brother Mehmet sees dealing drugs as his best chance in…

With actors Diane Kruger and Numan Acar. Loosely based on the 2004 bombing of a Turkish neighborhood in Cologne, Fatih Akin’s drama won international accolades for its German-American star Diane Kruger and the prize for Best Foreign Film at the 2018 Golden Globes. The film follows Katja Şekerci (Kruger) as her Kurdish-German husband (Numan Acar)…

color, Germany, Thomas Arslan, 89 Min, 2006 With actors Pablo Lira, Anibal Reyna, Valeria Villarcel A family of Chilean socialists living in West Germany, refugees from the coup which toppled Salvador Allende, attempt to survive on the few jobs which are open to them. In the story, the father has just been fired from his…

With Christoph Schlingensief. German artist and agent provocateur Christoph Schlingensief’s controversial 2000 project “Bitte liebt Österreich“, a commentary on the presence of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) into Austria’s governing coalition, is documented in this account of the weeklong installation. Schlingensief farcically applies the reality TV model of Big Brother-style competitive cohabitation to a…

With actors Yekta Arman and Ercüment Balekoglu English availability Senay (Blume) is a willful eleven year old girl in Hamburg whose Turkish father has just died. The only friend responding to the news about her father is a gay Turkish cabaret singer, Zeki (Siir Eloglu). Together they travel through Europe in search of the orphan…

Links: IMDB Genre(s): Classic Documentary;

Produced by Mirjam Quinte Not available on DVD or VHS in US or Germany Documentary film about Kurdish refugees in a small Calabrian village. Produced by ZDF /ARTE. Links: IMDB, Filmportal.de Genre(s): Classic Documentary; Theme(s): Migration and Mobility; Keywords: Refugee, Diaspora, Exile, Kurdistan

With actors Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance, Christine Kaufmann available in USA on DVD Out of Rosenheim (Bagdad Café) is a look into the minds and lives of some people most of us have met but few of us know much about. This movie exemplifies how one person in the right place can affect…

With actors Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, and Jasna Fritzi Bauer. Christian Petzold’s critically acclaimed historical drama follows Barbara Wolff (Nina Hoss), a physician in East Germany who is imprisoned and relocated for requesting permission to the leave the country. Though she hasn’t given up hope of escape, her plans take an unpredictable turn when she…

color, Germany, Asli Özarslan, 25 Min, 2011 Germany-based Turkish filmmaker Asli Özarslan’s documentary introduces us to the performers at the Berlin theater Ballhaus Naunynstraße, which features mostly actors and directors with immigrant backgrounds. Genre(s): Documentary

Available on DVD Liberated Zone is a drama-filled movie revolving around money-chasing CEOs, interracial couples, unfaithful partners, racism, a hint of homosexuality, and most of all, sex. What more could one ask for in a film about Germany, which is not typically thought to epitomize any of these traits. Two things I found quite peculiar…

Mostly Martha is a romantic comedy that brings up several issues of today’s society in Germany in a very subtle way. The main character Martha is a master chef in an upscale restaurant, but while she is great in her job, she is hopeless in relationships, be it with men, kids, her boss, or customers.…

Die in der Türkei geborene und in Deutschland aufgewachsene Filmemacherin Seyhan Derin unternimmt in ihrem Debutfilm eine Reise in das Leben ihrer Mutter: einer Frau, die in einer ländlichen Region der Türkei groß geworden ist und nun bereits seit vielen Jahren in Deutschland zwischen zwei Welten und zwei Kulturen lebt. Der Vater, der sehr unter…

With actors Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley available on DVD in the US Set in West London, Hamburg and Hounslow, this comedy addresses multicultural issues in relation to women’s soccer, friendship, family and social norms. Jesminder (Jess) Bhamra (Parminder Nagra), the daughter of Indian parents that immigrated to the UK, loves to play soccer. Her…

With actors Ed Bejarano, Timo Berger, and Clara Masnatta “Berlin” is the portrait of a city quickly sketched on DV tape, a mosaic of everyday life as experienced by two Argentine immigrants. Virtually dispensing with dialog, this one-man pic by Homero Cirelli comes close to the feel of a silent movie, though music and sound…

With actors Hülya Avsar and Cem Özer There is an ancient arab custom that a guest in one’s household must be treated with dignity and respect. If the guest has been given the signs of being a guest (food, etc.) – no matter how inadvertently – then, even if he is an enemy who will…

With actors Hanns Lothar and Helmut Griem Der deutsche Seemann Glen verliebt sich in Hongkong in die chinesische Nachtclubtänzerin Anna und beschließt, sie mit in sein Heimatdorf auf der Hallig Olesund zu nehmen. Dort bekommt er jedoch schon bald zu spüren, dass die Einheimischen alles andere als erfreut über den Zuzug der “Chinesin” sind. Bei…

The documentary film BLACK DEUTSCHLAND is an intimate study of how a not so small minority in Germany thinks and feels. It explores how images and counter-images, life-plans and their reflection in the media mutually condition one another. How all of this becomes a social reality in which age-old clichés and prejudices continue to exist…

With actors Philippe Leotard, Richard Courcet, Patrice-Flora Praxo, Cesaria Evora From the sea and sun of the Cape Verde Island, it’s a very big step to rainy, gloomy, land-locked Luxembourg, but that’s the journey 20-year-old Dju Dele Dibonga must take to track down his dad, whose yearly visits and monthly guest worker checks have stopped.…

Produced by Robert Buckler With actors Om Puri, Pavan Malhotra, Angeline Ball, Ahsen Bhatti, Bhasker Patel Paints a vivid portrait of the secret lives and loves of a group of illegal Pakistani immigrants in 1960’s Britain. When Hussein, the leader of a house overcrowded with desperate, lonely men, brings home his British, pregnant girlfriend, the…

With actors Sami Bouajila, Nozha Kouadra, Philippe Ambrosini After a family tragedy, two young French-Arab brothers leave Paris and end up on the door step of their uncle and his family in Marseilles. Once there, the two are pulled apart as one is seduced by the streets and its life of drugs and crime, while…

With actors Denis Moschitto, Moritz Bleibtreu, and Volkan Özcan. Set in Hamburg and produced by Fatih Akin, Chiko is a tale of the son of an immigrant family Issa (Denis Moschitto) and his friend Tibet (Volkan Özcan) who dream of becoming big-time drug dealers, until they hook up with local dealer and pimp Brownie (Moritz Bleibtreu). Links: IMDB…

With actors Juliette Binoche, Thierry Neuvic, Ona Lu Yenke, Sepp Bierbichler, Arsinee Khanjian The lives of a struggling film actress, a Kosovo War photographer, his wayward brother, a Romanian beggar, and an African émigré come crashing together after a fateful event on a Parisian street corner. Haneke offers a scathing critique of the response to…

With actors Alexander Hacke, Baba Zula, Sezen Aksu, Erkin Koray, Selim Sesler 2004 has been an exciting and busy year for Hamburg-based filmmaker Fatih Akin. To begin with, his feature Head-On (“Gegen die Wand”) won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and then picked up four “Lolas” at the German Film Awards. What’s more, he…

With actors Parviz Sayyad, Cihan Anasai, Muhammet Temizkan, Hüsamettin Kaya Der Türke Husseyin kommt nach West-Berlin, um sich hier, “in der Fremde”, eine neue Existenz aufzubauen. Er findet eine Stelle als Fabrikarbeiter und lebt gemeinsam mit einigen türkischen Kollegen in einer heruntergekommenen Wohnung in Kreuzberg. (Summary from filmportal.de .) Links: IMDB Genre(s): Drama, Melodrama; Theme(s):…

Available on DVD Darwin’s Nightmare is a documentary on the effect of fishing the Nile perch in Tanzania’s Lake Victoria. The predatory fish, which has wiped out the native species, is sold in European supermarkets, while starving Tanzanian families have to make do with the leftovers. The larger scope of the story explores the gun…

With actors Mirjana Karanovic In theaters in Germany Ruza, eine Frau um die fünfzig aus dem ehemaligen Jugoslawien, betreibt ein Café in der Schweiz, in der sie ein eisernes Regiment führt. Die alltägliche Routine der allein stehenden Frau wird jedoch durcheinander gewirbelt, als die 22-jährige Ana eine Stelle in ihrem Café annimmt. Die attraktive junge…

Links: IMDB Genre(s): Drama, Melodrama;

With actors Mirjana Jokovic, Ben Becker, Pascal Breuer The naive 18 year old Dobrila leaves her little Serbian village to travel to Hamburg, Germany, where her boyfriend lives. The trip is not easy. Finally in Hamburg she has to realize her boyfriend is not very interested in a relationship. She doesn’t tell him she’s pregnant…

With actors Corinna Harfouch and Meret Becker available on VHS in the US A love-affair under extreme conditions. In the autumn of 1961, a few weeks after the building of the Berlin Wall, a school group tries to escape from East Berlin to the West. Quite by chance, Sophie and Konrad are separated; Sophie reaches…

Produced by Käte Ehrmann; Sybille Hubatschek-Rahn With actors Tamer Yigit, Idil Üner and Birol Ünel available on VHS in Germany Can (Tamer Yigit) is a small time drug dealer on the streets of Berlin Schöneberg. He suffers from his miserable everyday existence as much as he does from the reproaches made by Jale (Idil Üner),…

Dein Land ist mein Land ist eine Emanzipationsgeschichte, ein Film über die Anpassung, aber auch ein Film über die Selbstbehauptung. Ein Film, dessen Motto eine Frage sein könnte: “Warum soll ich nicht Türkin bleiben und Deutsche sein können ?” Links: official website Genre(s): documentary

Handsome Albanian villager Arben (the appealing Nik Xhelilaj, who looks set for a big international career) wants to marry Etleva, daughter of a neighboring clan, but her father has promised her to another man who is offering a 10,000 Euros bride price. But when it turns out Etleva is carrying Arben’s child, the pressure is…

With actors Paul Berndt and Renate Blume Die Büroangestellte Rita Seidel aus Halle findet durch die Liebe zu dem zehn Jahre älteren Chemiker Manfred Herrfurth die Kraft, aus ihrem Beruf auszubrechen und zu studieren. Nach einem Besuch in Westberlin kehrt die DDR-Bürgerin Rita Seidel freiwillig in ihre Heimat zurück, wo sie einen Nervenzusammenbruch erleidet und…

With actors Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander available on DVD with English subtitles in USA This Wim Wenders film centers around the story of two angels wandering in a mixture of post-war and modern Berlin. Invisible to humans, they nevertheless give their help and comfort to all the lonely and depressed souls they meet.…

color, Germany, Özgür Yıldırım, 6 Min, 2002 With actors Alexander Gallant, Gerhard Hinze, Peter Lewan. Student film from Turkish-German auteur Özgür Yildirim’s time at the Hamburg Media School. Links: IMDB Genre(s): Short film

Der Rat der Götter (Council of the Gods) is a film set in East Germany during World War II and is based on the testimonies from the Nuremberg Trials. The film attempts to reveal the secret plotting of war with under-the-table deals between American capitalist and German oil companies that play an opportunists role in…

With actors Serpil Turhan and Bilge Bingül A Fine Day is, after the films Geschwister and Dealer, the third part in a trilogy about the living conditions of Turkish youth growing up in Germany. Deniz is 21-years-old, lives in Berlin, works as a dubbing speaker and wants to become an actress. A Fine Day describes…

With actors Isabelle Weingarten and Rebecca Pauly Wim Wenders’ black and white film – which was awarded the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival – belongs to that rich subgenre of New German Cinema which focuses on filmmaking itself : On the coast of Portugal, an international film crew is shooting the remake of…

This documentary about “immigrant” police officers, comes from a German-Turk Berliner herself. She follows police actions in the heavily Turkish (dominant among many immigrant groups) districts of Kreuzberg and Neukölln. These are both home to now-third generation German Turks, Yugoslavs and others. But these “foreigners” started to inhabit this area of the former West Berlin…

Thirteen German directors present short films exploring the state of the country in 2009. Director and one of the project’s founders, Tom Tykwer, says, “Der Film Deutschland 09 vereint ein gutes Dutzend individuelle filmische Blicke auf das, was wir heute und jetzt als Heimat erleben – und wie wir uns in diesem Land verorten, verirren, verstricken. (“The…

With actors Wolfgang Bächler Heinz Bennent, Wolf Biermann, Joachim Bissmeier The collaborative film entitled Deutschland im Herbst from Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alexander Kluge and a host of other directors from the New German Cinema is an amalgamation of short films that detail the prevailing sociopolitical sentiments in the Federal Republic of Germany during the immediate…

Several years ago, the filmmaker, Aysun Bademsoy, came across the “Deutschländersiedlungen” (“German settlements”) in Turkey, which have arisen in the last 10-20 years along the connecting roads between the major coastal cities. “Deutschländer” (roughly translated “people from Germany”) is the name given in Turkey to Turks who have lived and worked many years abroad, mostly…

Links: IMDB, Film Portal

With actors Alexander Gallant, Gerhard Hinze, Peter Lewan. The “European Visions” omnibus includes 25 short films from the 25 countries that constituted the European Union in 2004. The project was inspired by Lars von Trier. Filmmakers had five minutes to explore the theme of “Europe.” The German segment (number 23) is titled “Die alten bösen Lieder”…

With actors Mario Adorf and Angela Winkler Danzig in the 1920s/1930s. Oskar Matzerath, son of a local dealer, is a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of World War…

With actors Hanna Schygulla and Klaus Löwitsch available on DVD with English subtitles Hermann and Maria Braun’s marriage lasts only one day and one night before Hermann is called to the front. After the war he is reported missing. Yet Maria believes he is still alive. Maria becomes the mistress of a GI whom she…

With actors Mina Sadic and Oktay Çagla.  A young German-Turkish woman, Hülya (Sadic), returns from Germany to her late father’s small mountain village in Turkey to write about him. As she learns more about him, she finds her impression of him shifting, nebulous and not wholly positive, and time and place itself become disoriented. Links: IMDB,…

German-born Umay flees her oppressive marriage in Istanbul, taking her young son Cem with her. She hopes to find a better life with her family in Berlin, but her unexpected arrival creates intense conflict. Her family is trapped in their conventions, torn between their love for her and the traditional values of their community. Ultimately…

Genre(s): Classic Documentary;

Produced by Harun Farocki Not available on DVD or VHS Türkische Hochzeitsfeiern sind traditionell große stimmungsvolle Familienfeste, für die die Eltern des Bräutigams keine Kosten scheuen dürfen. Diese Sitte ist auch bei den in Deutschland lebenden Türken noch lebendig. Sie ist in einigen deutschen Großstädten sogar zu einem speziellen Erwerbszweig geworden. Türkische Geschäftsleute bieten die…

With actors Jürgen Prochnow, Petra Kleinert, Mia Kasalo, and Ugur Ekeroglu.  After retired judge and widower Ernst Blessing (Jürgen Prochnow) loses his estranged daughter in a traffic accident, he must come to terms with his past and his loneliness when he is forced to assume responsibility for his two grandchildren until their Kurdish father is…

The subject of this well-intentioned documentary on the expulsion of Turkish citizens from Germany is Melek Tez, a basically disgruntled, 38-year-old woman who does not give the impression she would be happy anywhere. As director Meerapfel follows Melek through the bureaucratic maze that will eventually supply her with a certain amount of funds on her…

Steyerl’s film traces the impact of an influx of transnational companies on the city dwellers of Berlin in post-reunification Germany. The effect of the changing economy and politics on the city and its inhabitants is echoed through their physical relocation to its outer edges. In 1990, squatters proclaim a socialist republic on the death strip.…

Available on DVD in Germany Der polnische Regisseur Stanislaw Mucha schildert mit seinem Film eine Suche: Er will den geographischen Mittelpunkt Europas aufspüren. Doch gleich ein Dutzend Orte in einem Umkreis von 2000 Kilometern erhebt Anspruch auf die Mitte, von Braunau am Inn, Hitlers Geburtsort, wo einst Napoleon die Mitte gefunden haben soll, über die…

With actors Emil Steinberger and Walo Lüönd Foreigners who apply to become Swiss citizens have no easy task – especially when the police lets Bodmer loose to check upon their background, their integration in the society, and the possible danger they represent to the orderliness and cleanliness of the country. Bodmer gets a new assistant…

With actors Rosel Zech and Hilmar Thate available on DVD with English subtitles Munich, 1955: A sports journalist meets Veronika Voss, an UFA actress who supposedly had an affair with Goebbels. Now declining, Voss is kept by her “kind” doctor, Dr. Kart, supplying her house, food, clean clothes and her favourite: morphine. Voss, trying to…

Available on DVD Flanders, a famous female author, travels to the German capitol in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall. She is deeply depressed by the events because she saw the Communist states as a very good thing that has now ended. During these joyful days, she cannot find anyone who understands her,…

With actors Nina Hoss, Jacky Ido Available on DVD in Germany Kurz vor der Abreise verliebt sich die Schweizerin Carola im Kenia-Urlaub in den eindrucksvollen Samburu-Krieger Lemalian. Sie storniert ihren Rückflug und schickt ihren Freund alleine nach Hause zurück, um sich auf die Suche nach Lemalian zu begeben. Nachdem sie ihn gefunden hat, beschließt sie,…

With actors Hermann Simon, Clarissa Lichtblau The movie consist of 13 separate episodes each handling a period between 1960 and 1970. The length of these periods varies from one day to some years. It tells the story of a group of people in Munich (mostly music and film students). Every episode focuses on a different…

With actors Frank Oladeinde, Bhasker Patel, Youngme Song available on VHS with English subtitles in USA In Hamburg, always within reach of government officials, immigrants try to make their way. Shezad, a Pakistani in his early 20s, lives in a small hotel run by the shady Herder. The hotel is a virtual United Nations. Shezad…

With actors Sam Meffire and Johannes Brandrup English availability Im Jahr 1992, kurz nach den zahlreichen ausländerfeindlichen Übergriffen in Ostdeutschland, die in Hoyerswerda einen traurigen Höhepunkt fanden, lächelte plötzlich ein junger farbiger Polizist von zahllosen Plakaten zu den Menschen herab: “Ein Sachse” lautete der Slogan der Aktion. Und dieser Sachse hieß Sam Meffire, 1970 als…

With actors Lars Rudolph and Augustine Thullah Hussi Kutlucan, the Berlin-based Turkish writer, director and co-star of ‘Three against Troy’, has enormous vitality, black humour and a keen eye for the idiosyncrasies of different cultures. His film is a fast-paced road movie steeped in sinister intrigues, upstanding friendship and the fascination of the orient. Links:…

With actors Elmar Wepper, Mercan Türköglu, Özay Fecht. Hartmut Mackowiak (Elmar Wepper), a taxi driver separated from his wife and stuck in his ways, is forced to reckon with the new and unpredictable when young Hayat (Mercan Türköglu), visiting her grandmother in Nuremberg, ends up in his taxi after her grandmother (Özay Fecht) has a…

With actors Taye Diggs, Gabriel Mann Südafrika 1951. In Johannesburg beginnt der schwarze Sportreporter Henry Nxumalo, über die brutalen Verhältnisse auf einer Arbeiterfarm zu recherchieren. Schließlich veröffentlicht er eine Aufsehen erregende, investigative Reportage in dem Magazin “Drum”. Zunächst bleibt Henry unbehelligt, als aber weitere Enthüllungsartikel in “Drum” erscheinen, ziehen er und sein Fotograf, der Deutsche…

With actors Oğuz Tunç and Asli Altan. Ismet Elçi’s tragic drama follows Metin (Oğuz Tunç), a second generation immigrant living in Germany who visits his ancestral home village in Turkey after a long period of absence only to realize upon arrival that his family has arranged a marriage for him. Fearful of his father, Metin…

With actors Jale Arikan and Tatjana Blacher Charlotte runs a luggage porter service for the tourists on Helgoland: she transports the luggage of the new arrivals from the jetty to the bed and breakfast hotels. When she sees Ayse for the first time, she thinks she’s seen an angel. However, in fact she’s a former…

With actors Füsun Demirel and Berivan Kaya. A short film by Kurdish-German auteur Ayşe Polat. Links: IMDB Genre(s): Short

With actors Emanuel Goldfarb Available on DVD in Germany Basierend auf dem Buch des Schweizer Autors Charles Lewinsky steht im Mittelpunkt des Ein-Personen-Films “Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Jude” ein jüdischer Journalist namens Emanuel Goldfarb, der eingeladen wird, an einer Schule über seinen Alltag als “jüdischer Mitbürger” zu sprechen. Goldfarb, der das Ganze für eine idiotische Idee…

English availability Kurzdokumentarfilm über eine türkische Kölner Schülerin, die neben ihren Abitur-Vorbereitungen als Boxerin in einem Sportstudio trainiert – als einzige Frau zwischen zahllosen Männern. Die hübsche junge Frau, die nach ihrem angestrebten Studien-Abschluss in der Türkei arbeiten möchte, demonstriert, dass es möglich ist, ein selbstbestimmtes Leben jenseits aller „Kopftuch-Klischees“ zu führen, ohne deshalb auf…

With actors Karoline Herfurth and Ken Duken For Hayat, a 20-year-old girl of Turkish-German background, football is the most important thing in her life. She’s the best and most spirited player on her football team. But all of a sudden she’s got other things to think about. The doctors diagnose breast cancer. The operation changes…