Monthly Archives: September 2018

With actors Frank Rogowski and Paul Beer. Premier German auteur Christian Petzold’s adaptation of the 1942 Anna Seghers’s novel follows Georg (Rogowski), a young Jewish man who flees the Nazis to France with the identity and papers of a dead … Continue reading →

With actors Herbert Grönemeyer, Aysun Bademsoy and Meray Ülgen. In this early made-for-TV engagement with migration and multiculturalism, a young Turkish-German woman, Ayshe (Bademsoy), meets and falls in love with Bernd (Grönemeyer), but is at odds with her father (Ülgen) … Continue reading →

With actors Ayse Romey, Uwe Bohm, Sener Sen, Ilhan Emerli Jan (Bohm) joins a judo class and, on a bet, pursues his Turkish-German classmate Yasemin (Romey) romantically. Yasemin is uninterested and has her own problems, first and foremost the strict … Continue reading →

With actors Benno Fürmann and Nina Hoss. Smug, reckless car salesman Phillip Gerber (Fürmann) runs over a young boy in a tragic moment of carelessness, and flees the scene. He follows the boy’s condition until learning of his passing, but … Continue reading →

color, Germany/Turkey, Martina Priessner, 88 Min, 2010 Four Turkish-Germans born who grew up in Germany and now live in Istanbul share their different stories and divergent paths that all brought them back to their ancestral homeland: one through deportation, two … Continue reading →

This made-for-TV documentary film for the series Denk ich an Deutschland (“I think of Germany”) follows Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin and his parents (Mustafa Enver Akin and Cem Akin), as they visit the village the Akin family comes from. The elder Akins were … Continue reading →

With actors Narges Rashidi, Marlene Metternich, Benno Fürmann, and Jascha Baum. Young Can (Baum) lives with his sister Segvi (Metternich) and his mother Elmas (Rashidi). Struggling to make ends meet, Elmas works in a brothel but keeps it from her … Continue reading →

With actors Josefine Preuß, Elyas M’Barek, Anna Stieblich, and Adnan Maral. Based on, but not occurring in the same timeline as, the hit German culture-clash sitcom of the same name, “Türkisch für Anfänger” finds Lena Schneider (Preuß) and Cem Öztürk … Continue reading →

Ali Samadi Ahadi’s documentary tells the story of Iran’s Green movement and the brutal repression of protests after the disputed presidential elections of 2009. Links: IMDB, YouTube (Trailer) Genre(s): Documentary

With actors Tahar Rahim, Hindi Zahra, Makram Khoury, and Simon Akbarian. In Fatih Akin’s monumental epic chronicling one man’s experience of the Armenian genocide and its aftermath, Nazaret Manoogian (Rahim) is spared from execution by an Ottoman soldier. Nazaret henceforth … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →