Tag Archives: Almanya

Growing Up

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The two stills I chosen are from Almanya: Willkommen in Deutschland, the reason I choose these two is because of the charater development that both Hüseyin and Muhamed shown. We see Veli at the end of the film stay in is childhood home and planning on to rebulid it. I see this scene as Muhamed ending his childhood and/or youthful nature and focusing on become more of an adult. I say that even though he may seem like an adult he still has that childhood attachment to Coca-Cola. Near the beginning of the film we see that this attachment to the soft drink still cling on to him like a leech and attach itself to another living thing. The scene where Muhamed seems to possibly be sexually aroused to Coca-Cola and I say possibly be sexually aroused because the scene before showing the giant cola bottle showed the rear end of a woman. This scene can be played off for a laugh but it could also possibly mean that Muhamed’s craving of cola is more a lust for cola. Then near the end of the film is where I see the change when Muhamed became an adult. It would be the agurment with his brother and then their reconciliation. We finally see the two let all out after the death of their father and come to a nonverbal understanding. Then to show more of Muhmaed’s growth would be his last scene with the family. Is his dramtic decision to stay in Turkey seems to mirror his father’s decision to move the whole family to Germany.

Differences

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Thought out the film we are shown many different expression of the characters that gave off a feel of realism. The scene with the bathroom really shows the cultural and economic differences between Germany and Turkey. The family believed that Turkey was their true home but after spend a good portion of time in Germany and adapting to its cultural. When they returned to Turkey and saw their home again. The disappointing realization of how different Germany is compare to Turkey causing they to expression a small cultural identity crisis but Fatma near the end of film told her family of how Hüseyin maybe German on paper but if you were take him to the village the people there will vouch for him as a true Turk. That line helps describe her children cultural identity. I picked this scene of Hüseyin because it sums up the family’s expression thought out the film. That there are ups and downs no matter where you go

New Passports and Bad Test Scores

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In this gif scene, Grandfather Hüseyin is sitting at the kitchen table, staring in vain at his newly acquired German passport. It is evident from the previous scene in bed with his wife, that he is not excited to have gotten the passport. She tries starting a conversation about it, where he quickly flicks the lights off. On the gif itself, I felt like he was giving the same emotional response every student has felt before. His eyes rolled back in his head as he stared at the paper object that meant so much, yet so little. You could see in his eyes, the pain that had gone into getting that almost meaningless piece of paper. He had been working in Germany for so long but hadn’t been a true citizen until receiving a random piece of paper. The problem still being that it could never change the fact that he is still not accepted. No matter how hard he tries, he will always share a different cultural background and therefore be inherently different. No matter how hard he tries, or what he “gets”, he will never truly be German or Turkish anymore.           

I don’t want to be German!

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I chose this scene because this shows how Hüseyin is scared of getting his German passport. One could watch this scene and think that he is just scared of becoming German but a deeper dive shows that he is scared of losing his own culture. We talked in great depth about whether of not the guest workers were being taken advantage of and  this scene could be used as an argument for that train of thought. Hüseyin is having nightmares about what the Germans would require of him to become one of “them” and even though the movie uses comedy to portray this the audience can conclude that these thoughts have to have stemmed from his experience since his arrival in Germany.

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not always easy

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This particular scene is a good depiction of kinda the overall theme the film, Almanya, portrayed to its audience. This film is about how a Turkish family immigrated to Germany as a result of the father’s belief that they will have a more prosperous life. When the family first arrived in Germany the children are shown to be somewhat hostile to the new ways and foreign to simple things such as a toilet and garbage men. Over time the children become more accustomed to the “German way of life” and somewhat forget some of the more Turkish traditions. This scene is showing the result of the children learning about Christmas and how most families in Germany receive gifts and put up a Christmas tree. The children explain this tradition to their parents and beg to also partake in this custom. The mom tries her best to do so for the kids but as you can see the children were slightly disappointed in the rather small size of the tree and lack of wrapping on the gifts. This rolls back around to the theme of the film which is mostly trying to highlight how difficult it is for immigrants to balance keeping their own traditions alive while also trying to assimilate into their new community.

Off the Map

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Blog Post #5

I thought this would be a good gif to make and present because it is one of the first times we see the young character of Cenk learning a little bit about cultural identity. He is the only child in the classroom who’s home city doesn’t lay on the European map, and he is obviously upset and even made fun of for this (you can see in his reaction after the teacher puts him on the blank wall). This starts the issue/question of cultural identity that sticks around through the whole film, not only with Cenk. This here is where the German/Turkish identity question starts to come into play basically.

Cultural Differences

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Almanya does an excellent job of conveying cultural differences through different scenes in the movie. The fact that Muhamed is terrified of Jesus is very funny since a crucifix is not supposed to illicit fear. He is scared because he learned from his friend that Germans (Catholics) eat the body of Christ every week, which is true, except for one important detail which is that the body of Christ is actually not flesh. This dream sequence says a lot about the perception of what Germany will be like versus the reality which we see throughout the movie. Muhamed has endless cokes in his own bedroom with luxurious linens. Living in Germany proved to be not so opulent for Muhamed and his family.

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“guest” gif

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I chose this clip after the discussion we had in class on Wednesday about the appropriateness of calling the Turkish “guest” workers when they were in fact not guests at all. I thought this short clip from the beginning of the film truly shed light on that fact and helped me better understand the context of our discussion. In my gif you can see the “guest” workers entering Germany and being inspected like an animal almost. They are being numbered and made to remove their clothing. While Almanya was a more lighthearted recount of this time in history, this first scene or two expresses the notion that these people weren’t “guests” so much as a menial labor force.

A Flash of the Past

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This scene is at the very end of the movie when the family is leaving their small village in Turkey as well as their beloved grandfather behind. I think this scene shows how the film came full circle. Cenk, as the youngest in the family, is trying to imagine and replay the stories Canan had been telling him of their family and journey to Germany. This film follows the history of guest workers but, more specifically, the story of this certain family. This scene shows the memory, history, and cultural identity that was important to this family during the time of their migration and within the many generations that followed.

Jesus frisst Menschen

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I found not only this scene but the entire relationship with religion in Almanya: Wilkommen in Deutschland a bit of an eye-opener. While I am not personally religious it is well known that Christianity is the dominant religion in Western countries so seeing the view of Christianity as a foreign concept was very eye-opening. We all know that other religions exist such as Buddhism, Islam, or Hinduism however as most of us have grown up with the Christianity influenced cultures having the views swapped gave a bit of insight into some of the fake “stereotypes” that exist. I found it hilarious how they described going to church as “eating the man’s body and drinking his blood.”