On 10 September, 1964, Germany’s one-millionth "guest worker" was welcomed.
Spanning a period of no less than forty-five years, this film by sisters
Yasemin Samdereli (director) and Nesrin Samdereli (screenplay) tells the
story of guest worker number one-million-and-one – a man named Hüseyin
Yilmaz and his family.


"Who or what am I – German or Turk?" asks six-year-old Cenk Yilmaz when
neither his Turkish nor his German schoolmates pick him for their respective
football teams. In an attempt to comfort Cenk, his 22-year-old cousin
Canan tells him the story of their grandfather Hüseyin, who came to
Germany at the end of the sixties as a "guest worker" and who later brought
his wife and children to "Almanya". Germany had long since become the
family’s home when without warning one night, Hüseyin surprises his
loved ones with the news that he has bought a house in Turkey and now
wants to return to the old country. Refusing to brook the slightest opposition,
the entire family set off for Turkey. This marks the beginning of a journey
full of memories, arguments and reconciliations – until, that is, the family
trip takes an unexpected turn…


The young filmmakers have plundered their own memories of childhood
and youth for this, their cinematic debut. Yasemin Samdereli: “Even at an
early age, we were always struck by the way people found it amusing
whenever we told them stories about our childhood: that Nesrin for
instance once played German carnival figure ‘Funkenmariechen’ and used
to belt out Catholic hymns fervently during mass. Or that I used to play the
flute in a marching band and wrote my name Jasmin – until my second
grade teacher torpedoed my attempts to hoodwink her.”



Source: 61. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)