Germany/ 2022/ 98’
DIRECTED BY: Cem Kaya
SCREENPLAY BY: Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay, Cem Kaya
EDITED BY: Cem Kaya
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Cem Kaya
PRODUCER: Florian Schewe
PRODUCED BY: Film Five, filmfaust
FESTIVALS & AWARDS: Audience award 72. Berlinale, Panorama; Indiemusic award @Indielisboa 2022; Documentary Film Award of Goethe-Institut DOK.Fest Munich; Main award DOKKA Film Festival 2022
The film tells the story of the independent and largely unknown music of immigrants from Turkey and their children and grandchildren in Germany in a very lively way, full of rhythm. In the form of a documentary essay, director Cem Kaya takes his viewers into a dazzling universe of musical diversity. In the highest sound quality, he brings the energy and spirit of those years to life. E.g., the stage shows of the eccentric folk duo Derdiyoklar at a wedding with thousands of guests in a multi-purpose hall redecorated as a festival hall somewhere in the Ruhr region: melancholic, but danceable, political, but cheerful, larmoyant in expression, but sincere.
Cem Kaya (born 7 January 1976 in Schweinfurt) is a German film director, screenwriter, cameraman and editor. He studied communication design in Stuttgart and worked first as a producer, editor and director of commercials and music videos before moving into documentary. His film Remake, Remix, Rip-Off, about the Turkish Yesilam film industry that remakes Hollywood blockbusters for the domestic cinema market, premiered at Locarno. He is known for: Arabeks (2010). Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema (2014), and Love, Deutschmarks and Death (2022).