Superficially a quite simple flashback movie, the narrative flits back and forth between the 1960s mother and father Hüseyin and Fatma (Fahri Ögün Yardim and Demet Gül) travelling to Almanya and their large family in the present day. Shown as the land of the ‘economic miracle’, Germany is the saviour for the Turkish Yilmaz family who flee Turkey for a more stable life. Turkish-German director Yasemin Şamdereli’s comedy on cultural integration and national identity is a heartening portrayal wrapped in its own investigation. Yasemin Şamdereli / Germany / 2010 / 101 mins On arriving in Turkey the film degenerates into a sentimental melodrama, as each member of the family finally fulfils their destiny.Showing Cameo 1, Thu 23 June 17:45 & Sat 25 June 13:00 They are also the pretext for a clever narrative trick: Cenk does not speak Turkish, so to explain the degree of misunderstanding and alienation encountered by his grandparents and parents, then children, the Turks speak German and the Germans Turkish.
These passages are the best part of the film, showing the postwar boom decades in a new light.
To distract the youngest member of the family, Cenk, 10, who is at a loss to know whether he should side with the Germans or Turks when he plays football during school breaks, other members of the family undertake to tell him their story, illustrated by long flashbacks. The day after receiving his German passport, Huseyin announces that he plans to take the whole tribe – of which the youngest generation has branched out into mixed marriage – to visit the village in Turkey where he and his wife were born. The film still has some pleasant moments, though.
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