My father, the Turk

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Movie
Original title My father, the Turk
Country of production Turkey , Germany
original language German , Turkish
Publishing year 2006
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Marcus Attila Vetter and Ariane Riecker
script Marcus A. Vetter and Ariane Riecker
production Jochen Dickbertel, SWR
camera Dragomir Radosavljevic, Andreas Schäfauer, Marcus Vetter
cut Saskia Metten
occupation

Corinna Harfouch (speaker) u. a.

My father, the Turk is an autobiographical German documentary film by Marcus Attila Vetter in collaboration with Ariane Riecker from 2006. The full-length film has won several awards.

content

The film describes the first detailed encounter between the author, the son of a German and a Turk, with his 72-year-old father and his family during a three-week summer vacation in Turkey . Two of Vetter's four half-sisters are also present and take the German, who was also unknown to them, into the family. In addition, the story of the love affair between Marcus' parents is told, but also the sudden end of this relationship before the author was born. In interview situations with his father, the author tries to get answers to open questions, e.g. B. why he left his mother or was never there for him. Cousin's sisters also begin to confront their father, who at first evades the questions but finally answers them.

In the foreground of the film is the touching rapprochement between son and father. In conversation with his son, the latter reflects on the topics of Islam, family, but also different values ​​in different cultures. Here he often uses the German language, which he still speaks despite his absence from Germany for decades. Vetter himself wonders why he did not initiate the meeting with his father until the age of 38.

Was it because of the postcard he sent me when I was 18, which showed a half-naked Turkish blonde and the lottery numbers I was supposed to play?

The protagonist is obviously also looking for the story of his own origin, although the fact that he is supposed to be part of this story "is rather scary" to him.

At the same time, the film vividly describes the petty-bourgeois society in Germany at the end of the 1960s.

prehistory

Author Vetter goes in search of clues in Central Anatolia

The author and director of the film is the son of a German employee and a Turkish cook who worked in Germany in the 1960s. After it became known that the young German had fallen in love with the Turkish "guest worker", the former student and then assistant in a bank was cast out by her conservative family. She then goes to Hamburg with her lover. Here she becomes pregnant with Marcus Attila. The Turk, however, is already a father of a family with two children and a wife in Turkey - the father of a child does not return to his pregnant girlfriend in Germany after visiting his daughters. After the birth, the attempts by the father, who is delighted to have a son, to bring Marcus Attila and his mother to Turkey fail, just as applications by the Turk to stay in Germany are now denied.

The son of the Turkish migrant worker grows up with the single mother in Germany (the only brief encounter with his father takes place at the age of seven). The mother, who will not receive any support from her family later on, never gets over the departure of the child's father. Marcus Attila becomes - without his father, whose only son he remains, finds out - a well-known and multiple award-winning German documentary filmmaker. At the age of 38, Vetter finally decided to make a film about his unknown father. The annual summer stay of the now 72-year-old in his home village on the Black Sea in Zonguldak should form the scenario for this.

Two years earlier, Cousin's father found his son through a Turkish television program that brings people together who have lost sight of each other. At the time, the director had turned down the broadcaster's offer to meet his father in front of the cameras.

Letter to the father

The documentary film director initiated his project with a letter to his father.

The only thing I have of you are two photos, a postcard and the memory of how one day you suddenly stood in front of me. You will ask yourself why I am only getting in touch now. It's not that easy to have a Turkish father you don't know. That's why as a child I sometimes said that you were French ,

it says there and

Now I want to finally get to know you. Gülay, our neighbor, could come along and translate. If you agree, I would bring a camera. Because I have the idea to make a film about you.

Vetter also writes about his mother's state of mind in relation to his departure, but also sends his regards to the father's wife and half-sisters.

Mother's diary entries

The author was able to read the story of his parents in a book manuscript that his mother made from her diary entries at the time. Vetter also uses excerpts from this in the film.

structure

The film shows roughly in chronological order the director's departure to the Anatolian mountain village of Çubuk and the encounter with his father and other relatives. Within this thread of action, however, he uses assembly technology contrary to the actual timing, for example when conversations between siblings are matched with interview situations with the father.

With a hand-held camera operated by the director himself, more intimate moments of the encounters are woven into the course. With the black and white filter situations of coming to terms with the past are made clear. From the off , the mother's extensive diary entries, spoken by Corinna Harfouch , depict in flashbacks the story of the great and difficult love for Marcus Attila's father in the Federal Republic of the 1960s.

Turkish stories are sometimes translated by other speakers, and everyday conversation situations and conversations are usually only subtitled.

Reviews

For Clemens Niedenthal from the taz , the film Vetters is primarily about the fate of the man who is his mother

got pregnant in a federal railway barracks. Who spoke of great love and yet at some point went home to the other woman and the other children. How so much disappointment, also on the part of his Turkish half-siblings, can suddenly grow so much warmth (...). It is quite possible that Marcus Attila Vetter understood this for the first time when he looked at the footage after his return.

Bernhard Nellessen thinks the work is one

outstanding documentary film (...) that gets under the viewer's skin - and which is more than just a personal search for clues every second. 'My father, the Turk' throws a spotlight on a piece of contemporary history, on the German-Turkish relationship and on the change in social values.

reception

The film was not only shown at various documentary film festivals, but also e.g. B. also at the SinemaTürk Munich or the San Francisco International Film Festival and in the regular program of the art house cinemas. My father, the Turk , has won many awards and has also been shown several times in cultural television programs.

Awards (selection)

  • “Best Documentary” at the 12th Film Festival Turkey / Germany
  • Prix ​​Europa for the "best documentary"
  • Golden Gate Award , San Francisco International Film Festival

Nominations

Web links