Almanya: Willkommen in Deutschland

To be fair: who says that migration-related films cannot be positive, but have to be bleak and ripe with social criticism à la 'Into this World'? The idea to portray the arrival and gradual integration of a Turkish family in Germany without a speck of racism or aggravation could appear almost bold, given that such a subject matter almost invariably descends into the abysses of social or moral decay. Yet 'Almanya' attempts to be an uplifting, encouraging comedy of sorts, and obviously intends to highlight the positive aspects of integration. Religious matters are completely obliterated, women's issues are gently brushed aside, the entire story revolves around a family so intact, so void of disintegration and serious conflict that it could very well substitute for a Turkish Trapp family, if there was more singing.

Being so picture-perfect, the family (and the film) can never shake a whiff of artifice and dullness. Given its inclusion in this year's Berlin competition, and a fairly wide release for a domestic film, one cannot help but wonder if this isn't a German propaganda effort promoting integration to lesser satisfied migrants: Look, this is how easy you could make it for yourselves in our golden land of opportunity. Perceived as such, 'Almanya' becomes almost enjoyable as a parody of sorts. But if you're interested in how things really are for migrants in Germany, you're better off with Faith Akin's 'Head-on' and 'Short Sharp Shock', or Özgür Yildirim's 'Chiko'.

I like this movie because it doesn't show the pain, complexity, difficult lives in a dramatic manner. Instead, it adds humors while showing the reality. When Turkish workers move to Germany, it was hard times for them. They worked all the time and continue to their life in a very bad conditions. Then their families also moved to Germany. Thsese time their children and their grand children live adaptation problems. This film shows in a funny manner staying between two cultures.

What else I like about this film is also the characters and the settings were very natural. I believe this film increase the empathy of Germans and Turks to each other.

The movie plots on two opposite lines the story of Turk family on the way to Germany as foreign workers, and their way back to Turkey. The relationship between the Turkish guests and the German hosts are idealistically depicted - the Germans love their Turkish hard-workers (if things are so happy, why Turkey has been time and again declined from joining the European Union?), the Turkish family is completely modern - like a normal Westernized family : they react tolerantly to their young daughter who gets pregnant from a non-German guy (no word on the common and prevalent honor-killings among the Turks in Germany, no word on arranged marriage which is also the very common among Turks in Germany, etc.) I've been living many years in Germany, and the story this movie tells us is completely unconvincing.

As far as the artistic sides of the movie are concerned, it starts as a comedy and suddenly, with no seen reason, it turns into saccharine melodrama. The performance, the dialogs, the mimic and gestures reminded me of typical German TV commercials for Washing Powder, Yogurt, etc.

I went to see Almanya (the Turkish word for "Germany") expecting to see a movie on the level of e. g. "Süperseks" -- harmless, contrived and predictable. My girlfriend wanted to see it, and I'm smart enough to give in to her once in a while, it's called tactics. I was all the more surprised to see an insightful and witty film that plays with clichés but doesn't pander to them. The story of a family of three generations of Turkish immigrants is revealed through flashbacks -- how young Turkish lovers elope from Anatolia without ever having spoken to each other before: a quintessential story of couth romance, even though it is revealed later in the film that pregnancy also played a slight role in this development. I also liked the gadget that the Turks speak German while the Germans speak a sort of Teutonic gibberish: that way, the movie delivers some real insight how arriving in Germany must have felt like. And also the idea that the movie portrays the life of not the famous one-millionths, but of the one-million-and-first "guest worker". So, welcome to Almanya, enjoy your stay!

This movie is somehow similar to my own family history, how me and my sister grew up in germany, how we packed our luggage when going on vacation in turkey, but mind you, we grew up in the 80s and 90s. Still, it catches a lot of the suttle humor we are enjoying and how we face our daily lifes. I also watched the movie with my mum many years after release. She also loved it and shed some tears. Its hard to explain why this movie is so good and how they managed to create such a heartwarming experience, but rest assured, this movie shows you with it lovely characters how we emancipate from our parents and families, how we laugh, how we cry, how we hide to smoke - even as grown ups -, how we raise our children and how we argue as a generation caught between nations and cultures.

I hope you can enjoy this movie, too.