Berlin International Film Festival 2006

Dir: Aysun Bademsoy.

Bademsoy's subjects are Turkish returnees from Germany, who have chosen to live in a seaside housing development with its own shops, services and security patrols, a 'closed community' beyond the reach of ordinary Turkish people, but relative affordable for the returnees. Each family has different reasons for having chosen to leave Germany, but in every case it is clear their experience in Germany was unsatisfactory. Whether this was a matter of personal failure, or due to the status of Turkish people as second class citizens, and sometimes non-citizens, inside Germany, is ambiguous. The owner of a dry cleaning business explains that he spent decades working long hours for next to nothing in Germany and only went there because his wife insisted. He clearly believes life would have been better if he had stayed in Turkey. In all other cases there is a feeling these people have chosen a kind of limbo for their future. For whatever reason, illness, visa problems, divorce, the returnees left Germany with enough money to fund their new homes, but no clear prospects for the future and the outlook for their children is bleak in a country with low incomes, high unemployment and a sterile suburban context for their lives. It is a pity that their stories have not been respected in this film, which will linger as one of the few records of their lives.