The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival

WATCH

will take place from February 10th to 20th. Here are the two films we picked:

• Liebe, D-Mark und Tod (Love, Deutschmarks and Death): Director Cem Kaya’s documentary looking back at the 60 years on music culture of Turkish imgrants in Germany, will be screened in the Panorama section of the 72nd Berlinale. The documentary takes the name of the German song with Turkish lyrics by the group Ideal, one of the most successful bands from East Berlin rock music movement, which combined post-punk and new wave.

Rüştü Elmas, Love, Deutschmarks and Death, DEU 2022, Panorama © filmfaust, Film Five

• Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush: German director Andreas Dresen's film is about the struggle of a Turkish housewife for his son in Guantanamo prison to get released. It will be screened in the Competition section.

LISTEN

• In the third-class carriage: Turkish music group Kardeş Türküler returns to Behrenstraße with a unique concert project created especially for the Komische Oper Berlin: Verses by the poets Nâzım Hikmet and Bertolt Brecht combined with traditional folk songs and newly composed music. The concert took place on February 3rd and 4th, I am late to publish but such an interesting event that I wanted to keep it here.

• Songs of Gastarbeiter Vol.2: We heard the story of the first album from İmran Ayata, who prepared it together with Bülent Kullukçu, as part of our #60JahreMusik project. He heralded the second album, which is out now, with these wordss: "At that time, out of practicality, we only included the music of immigrants from Turkey. That caused a bit of a misunderstanding along the lines of, ‘but Gastarbeiters from Turkey weren’t the only ones.’ Finally, ten years on, we’re preparing an album that also includes immigrants from countries such as Greece and Italy.”
• Alamanya: Gurbet Türküleri (Germany: Songs of Gurbet): Rendering the stories of the immigrant workers from Turkey in Germany, the concert will take place at İş Kuleleri Concert Hall in Istanbul on February 10th.

VISIT/WATCH

• Gurbet Şarkıları – Songs from Foreign Lands [Music and Belonging between Turkey and Germany (1961–2021)]: As the part of the Museum of Islamic Art, Pergamon Museum presents the exhibition "Gurbet Şarkıları - Lieder aus der Fremde" until 20th of February. The selection of the exhibition includes Karaca to Tarkan, DJ İpek to Eko Fresh and Ozan Ata Canani. A documentary film by Mirza Odabaşı is also screen at the exhibition.
• Anselm Reyle - Heavy: German artist Anselm Reyle's solo show HEAVY opened at İstanbul's Dirimart on January 28.

• I’m in: Written by German theater director and dramaturgist Peter Lund, “I’m in” being staged at Das Das and it will be continued to staged until the end of February.
• OyunBu: The group exhibition, including works of curated by Emre Baykal can be seen at Arter from 17 February.

READ

• Turks, Jews, and Other Germans, Peter Chametzky, MIT Press: With its name exhoing with Peter Gay's "Freud, Jews and Other Germans", this books delves into the multicultural contemporary art scene in Germany through more than thirty artists. The book chooses to see the works of the artists who are not dominating the art scene as well. The works of the artist duo Özlem Günyol-Mustafa Kunt are for example one of the picks of the book. Their works could be seen at the current exibition at Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts Space "This Place".
• Why The Germans Do It Better, John Kampfner: British journalist and writer John Kampfner's book is translated to Turkish by Nermin Mollaoğlu. The book sparked some debate when it was published in Germany, the Turkish edition by Ithaki Publishing will be at book stores starting from February 9th.

GO

- MSA- German Cakes: German cakes workshop will be given on February 9-10 at the Culinary Arts Academy of Istabul.