Credits

Regie

Cem Kaya

Genre

documentary, music

Speelduur

98 minutes

Land

Germany

Taal

Turkish, German

Ondertiteling

English

Storyline

In the early 1960s, the so-called guest workers from Anatolia and other parts of Turkey were recruited by the Federal Republic of Germany. From the beginning, there was something that always accompanied them and was part of their culture: their music – a piece of home in a foreign land. Over the years, independent musical directions developed in Germany that did not exist in this form in their mother country. Cem Kaya’s documentary combines personal stories, archival footage, and a rich soundtrack of the era, including iconic music from Turkish artists. It also brings to light the struggles and dreams of the workers, illustrating the cultural exchange between Turkey and Germany during this period.

This documentary tells the unprecedented story of an independent musical culture of immigrants from Turkey, their children and grandchildren in Germany in an entertaining and very complex way with never-before-seen archive footage. Far from home, strangers in the new country, melancholic musical styles such as the Gurbetçi-Lieder (songs from abroad) emerged at the beginning of their immigration. Those songs were presented by artists like Yüksel Özkasap, called the Nightingale of Cologne, or Aşık Metin Türköz („Mayestero“). They were followed by younger musicians such as the duo Derdiyoklar (song „Liebe Gabi“), Ozan Ata Canani (song „Deutsche Freunde“) or Cem Karaca and the Kanaken („Mein Freund, der Deutsche“), who sang in German for the first time in their socially critical songs and thus shaped both migrant and German pop culture. Hip hop became the voice of the second and third generation who had grown up in Germany. Pioneers of German-Turkish Hip hop like Fresh Familee, King Size Terror or Islamic Force were also pathbreakers of contemporary pop music in Germany.