Organised and curated by Till Kadritzke and Carlos Kong (Princeton University/EXC Doctoral Fellow April–September 2025), project Moving Images, Transforming Germanness: Race, Migration and Transnational Filmmaking in Germany, 1968–1989, Research Area 4: "Literary Currencies", supported by Constellations (Anna Luhn). In cooperation with Sinema Transtopia.

The film series adopts the 'Temporal Communities' approach to analyse works of literature as the outcome of specific practices entangled in global networks and reframes the history of German film by looking at a wide array of transnational filmmaking practices in Germany since the 1960s.

In following different trajectories of transnational filmmaking in Germany and assembling films created within transnational networks, the series seeks to shed light on the important work performed by archival initiatives, cultural projects and a growing number of individual curators, exhibitors, researchers and artists over the last years. They all have restored, studied and made available films that have been unseen or underappreciated in Germany, often because they fell through existing national categories.

The series consists of four evenings that each highlight a different dimension of or route to transnational filmmaking in Germany, such as filmmakers in exile, Turkish productions in Germany or international students at film schools. Each evening will combine the screening of one or two films with an introductory presentation or a talk following the screenings.

Programme:

Almanya Acı Vatan
Germany, Bitter Homeland
Şerif Gören, Turkey 1979, 90 min, Turkish with English subtitles

Introduction by Prof. Dr. Ömer Alkin (Applied Media and Communication Studies, Hochschule Niederrhein)

Almanya Acı Vatan (Germany, Bitter Homeland) follows the lives of Güldane (Hülya Koçyiğit) and her husband Mahmut (Rahmi Saltuk), who enter into a sham marriage in order to move from Turkey to West Berlin as migrant workers. Combining comedy and melodrama with social criticism, the film shows an intimate look into the lives of Turkish factory workers in West Berlin from the perspective of workers themselves. Directed by renowned filmmaker Şerif Gören (1944–2024), the film was produced and distributed by the Turkish film industry, an historic example of a foreign film production shot in West Germany.

The screening is also part of the film series Postmigrantische Audiovisionen at Hochschule Niederrhein.

Upcoming Screenings:

Film Schools in East and West Germany

Cultural Nationalism (1968, Skip Norman, 11 min)

On Africa (1970, Skip Norman, 38 min)

Oyoyo (1980, Chetna Vora, 45 min)

Introduction by Dr. Ying Sze Pek (DFG Graduiertenkolleg "Das Dokumentarische: Exzess und Entzug", Ruhr University Bochum)

Filmmakers in German Exile

Anton P. Cechov – Ein Leben (1981, Sohrab Shahid Saless, 95 min)

Introduction by Behrang Samsami (author and journalist)

Transnational Legacies

Spielerinnen (2024, Aysun Bademsoy, 86 min)

Film Talk with Aysun Bademsoy