Summary

Kebab Connection is about a young aspiring Turkish filmmaker living in Germany named Ibo. He began filmmaking by producing small commercials for his uncle’s kebab shop, “King of Kebab”. At first, his uncle despises the commercial but after his kebab shop becomes mobbed with people who adored Ibo’s commercial his uncle praises Ibo. Ibo also has a German girlfriend, an aspiring actress named Titzi, who he gets pregnant. His father disapproves of him getting a German girl pregnant because this child will never be Turkish and in turn, kicks Ibo out of the house. With Ibo kicked out of his home, the Greek Taverna across the street offers Ibo to make their commercials and he does, which propels the rivalry between the Greeks and Turks. In this film, Ibo juggles his unpreparedness of impending fatherhood along with his father disowning him while still trying to produce the first German kung-fu movie. There are also a couple of gangsters seen around looking for tripe soup and a Capulet-Montegue type feud going on between the King of Kebab and a Greek Taverna across the street.

Transnational Elements

There are many transnational elements within this film, first of all it is set in Hamburg, Germany and focuses mainly on Turkish, Greek, and German characters / cultures. The fact that Ibo is attempting to create the first German kung-fu movie brings in elements of Chinese culture. Also, Ibo’s imagination and idolization of Bruce Lee brings American culture into the mix as well. There are also a couple of English words and small conversations throughout the film. The feud between the Turkish Kebab and Greek Taverna while in Germany represents movement and what happens when different nationalities migrate, culture begins to spread. Ibo being Turkish while Titzi is German brings in familial elements of transnationalism, in the scene where Ibo’s father is yelling at him on the street saying, “You will never be Baba, you will always be Papi”, “They will never speak your language”, “You’re having a child with a faithless person”, “You don’t have a father, I’m excluding you from my will”, this shows the severity Ibo’s father, and many others at the time, felt when it came to having a non-Turkish born grandchild.

Clip

Analysis of Clip

This is the final scene where Ibo and Titzi have gotten married and are celebrating inside “King of Kebab”, this shows that the Turks have accepted the fact that the integration of their younger generations into German society is inevitable. They have accepted that Ibo’s child will not be fully Turkish. They know this new generation will be different and unavoidable, no matter how much they keep their cultural ties, practices, and language, they are not in their home country anymore. 

This scene also shows Ibo’s Uncle, the owner of “King of Kebab”, and the owner of the Greek Taverna across the street interacting with each other during the celebrations. It shows them trying each others stuffed grape leaves and seeming to approve of one another’s. They then laugh and hug in celebration. I find this to be significant because both Greek and Turkish cuisine have grape leaves, this stems from historical ties and colonisation. The fact that they both approve of each other’s grape leaves shows the growth in acceptance of new cultures between the Greeks, Turks, and Germans from the beginning to the end of the film. 

Also at the end of the film, the producer that Ibo had met with in hopes of producing his German Kung-fu movie during the film attended the celebration as well, he approves of Ibo’s idea and Ibo’s dream comes true. 

In the beginning of the film, Ibo was an aspiring filmmaker kicked out of his house for getting a German girl pregnant and the Greeks and Turks had an ongoing feud. By the end of the film, Ibo’s dream is beginning to come true and they are all celebrating, together, the union between different cultures. 

Contribution to Larger Themes/Topics

This film contributes a lot to our discussion on culture and movement. The film follows a number of different nationalities and ways of life from the Greeks to the Turks to the gangsters loitering the streets. I think this film is quite relevant to today’s audience as we are dealing with an extremely large amount of displaced persons in the world. These displays of cultural differences and the events that stem from them are beginning to reoccur in these other displaced populations. 

The film also speaks to younger generations dealing with integration into a new society while their parents hold on to their old cultural ties and language. Ibo, a young aspiring Turkish filmmaker accidentally gets his German girlfriend pregnant which spurs Ibo’s father into the frenzy of having a non-Turkish grandchild. Throughout history and in the world today, interracial/intercultural? relationships have created new culture as well as conflict within family and nationality. 

Sources

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0177882/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kebab_connection

https://coc.kanopy.com/video/kebab-connection