Almanya - Welcome to Germany

“A delightful and charming comedy about the differences between east and west - and what can happen, if the two should meet.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

Genre Comedy
Year of Production 2010
Director & Script Yasemin Samdereli, Nesrin Samdereli
Principal Cast Demet Gül, Vedat Erincin, Lilay Huser , Denis Moschitto , Petra Schmidt-Schaller, Aykut Kayacik, Siir Eloglu, Aylin Tezel, Fahri Oguen Yardim, Rafael Koussouris
Length 101 mins
International Festival Screenings Berlin 2011 (Out of Competition), Seattle 2011, Edinburgh 2011, Shanghai 2011, Karlovy Vary 2011, Montreal 2011
Awards German Film Award 2011 (Best Film Silver, Best Screenplay), White Elephant Children's Media Award 2011 (Best Child Actor Rafael Koussouris)

“Who or what am I really: German or Turkish?” This is what six-year-old Cenk Yilmaz asks himself when neither his Turkish nor his German schoolmates choose him for their football team. To cheer him up a little, his 22-year-old cousin Canan tells him the story of her grandfather Hüseyin, who came to Germany in the late 1960s as a “guest worker” and later fetched his wife and children so they could be in “Almanya” with him. Much time has elapsed since then, and Germany has long since become the family’s home.

One evening, during a big family gathering, Hüseyin surprises his loved ones with the news that he has bought a house in Turkey and wants to take everyone back “home” with him. But what is home? Where is it really? Although all family members struggle with this ques­tion their own way, Hüseyin refuses to take no for an answer and so they have no choice but to set off for Turkey. It’s the beginning of a journey full of memories, arguments and reconciliations – until the family outing takes an unexpected turn…

Yasemin Samdereli was born in 1973 in Dortmund. She studied at the University of Television & Film in Munich from 1993-2000, during which time she gained experience on various international film productions. Since 2001, she has been active as a screenwriter and director. Her films as a director include: the shorts Schlüssellöcher (1994), Lieber Gott (1996), Kismet (2001), and Sextasy (2002), as well as the TV movies Alles getürkt (2003), Zivis (2004), Ich Chefe, Du nix (2007) and her theatrical feature debut Almanya (2010).

Nesrin Samdereli was born in Dortmund in 1979. After her secondary schooling, she began working as author and as editor at Kinowelt. She also wrote a number of scripts for short films together with her sister Yasemin, and in which she or her sister directed, such as Kismet (2001) and Sextasy (2004).

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