Films by Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay

Germany 2022, 96 min
by Cem Kaya

The German Federal Republic’s 1961 recruitment agreement with Turkey not only brought Gastarbeiter (guest workers) to Germany but also their music. Cem Kaya’s dense documentary film essay is a tutorial in Turkish-German recent history that tells a tale of assembly line jobs, homesickness and family reunification, the bazaar in the elevated railway station at Berlin’s Bülowstraße, xenophobia and racism, the wistful songs of the early years and the hip-hop of the post-reunification period. These a