Liebe, D-Mark und Tod

Along with the people, the 1961 recruitment agreement with Turkey also brought the music of the guest workers to Germany. Cem Kaya's dense documentary film essay is a lesson in Turkish-German contemporary history: assembly line jobs, homesickness and family reunification, the bazaar in Berlin's Bülowstraße elevated train station, xenophobia and racism, the wistful songs of the early years and the hip-hop of the post-reunification period. The musicians talk about all of this, starting with Metin Türköz and Yüksel Özkasap, through the psychedelic Derdiyoklar to the chart-topping rapper Muhabbet. Their music developed far from that of German bands, always driven by the Turkish community and its needs. It is about Radio Yilmaz, various music cassette labels, the German exile of protest rocker Cem Karaca, and wedding bands that also sing in Kurdish and Arabic to serve the market.Extensive archival research and an interest in Turkish popular culture are recurring themes in Cem Kaya's work. With Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm, he creates a rhythmic and vividly narrated cinematic reference work of Turkish music in Germany. (Berlinale)