TRANSIT BLOG
TRANSIT Blog was formerly part of the Multicultural Germany Project (MGP), which we are now merging with Transit Journal. Founded in 2001 by the German Department at UC Berkeley, MGP served as a research collaborative and continuously updated archive of migration, supported by the tireless energy and willpower of our very own Deniz Göktürk and UC Berkeley’s graduate students. Our blog includes reactions to current events and news, research materials, and teaching resources. Maintained mainly by students at Berkeley, the blog provides a window into our activities and campus discussions. We hope that TRANSIT Blog continues to serve as a resource and forum for both aspiring and continuing professionals in German Studies and its adjacent fields; we welcome contributions of short thought-pieces of ca. 1000-1500 words year-round. If you would like to contribute your own blog post or other materials (in English or German), please contact us at transitjournal@berkeley.edu.
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Rhythm is It!
Produced by Uwe Dierks, Andrea Thilo, Thomas Grube With actors Simon Rattle, Royston Maldoom, Susannah Broughton, Marie Theinert, Martin Eisentraut, Olayinka Shitu, Volker Eisenach, Miriam Pech Available on DVD in Germany RHYTHM IS IT! records the first big educational project of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra ventured out of the…
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The Stoning
With actors Cheyenne Rushing, Özay Fecht Available on DVD in Germany Kathleen Mulligan, eine gebürtige Amerikanerin, studiert in Hannover Islamwissenschaft. Eines Tages verliebt sie sich in den Iraner Hamid. Sie heiratet ihn und zieht mit ihm in den Iran, wo sie zum Islam konvertiert. Dann aber wird Kathleen durch eine Vergewaltigung schwanger. Nachdem sie Schwangerschaft…
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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…
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Die leere Mitte (The Empty Center)
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.…
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Trdnjava Evropa (Fortress Europe)
With actors Hannah Nortman and Emil Tchouk Artjom and his daughter Katja try to enter Italy illegally to join their wife and mother, Sveta, who emigrated to Italy a while ago, and found a job with the last of Trieste coachmen driving a horse-driven carriage. Artjom, Katja and a group of other refugees are caught,…
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Langer Gang (Passages)
Yilmaz Arslans Debütfilm erzählt von einer Gruppe junger Menschen, die in einem Reha-Zentrum für behinderte Jugendliche nach Nähe und Liebe suchen. Da gibt es ein an den Rollstuhl gefesseltes türkisches Mädchen, das von den Zwängen ihrer traditionell eingestellten Familie an einem selbstbestimmten Leben gehindert wird. Oder den Spastiker Martin, der sich in ein ebenfalls behindertes…
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Alice in den Städten (Alice in the Cities)
With actors Rüdiger Vogler and Yella Rottländer German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer’s block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The…
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Allemagne 90 neuf zéro (Germany Year 90 Nine Zero)
With actors Eddie Constantine and Hanns Zischler Germany Year Nine Zero follows an old spy’s journey back to France from the east. Since the Cold War has ended the spy is unclear about who his enemies are, and he doesn’t know what to do with himself. Jean-Luc Godard’s film is a series of scenes that…
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Auslandstournee (Tour Abroad)
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…
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Die Sehnusucht der Veronika Voss (Veronica Voss)
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…