FILM
We Forgot to Return

HEAD ON: The Films of Fatih Akin

Wed, 01/31/2018
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles

PLEASE NOTE:  This screening of Fatih Akin's Film WE FORGOT TO RETURN will now be followed by a special screening of his film THE CUT as part of an extended DOUBLE FEATURE program on Wednesday, January 31 2018.

This program begins  WE FORGOT TO RETURN at 7:00 pm, followed by THE CUT at approximately 8:15 pm.  

RSVP allows admission to both films.

WE FORGOT TO RETURN
Germany 2000, 59 min., German/Turkish (with English subtitles)
Writer-Director: Fatih Akin Cinematography: Gordon A. Timpen, Editor: Andrew Bird, Producers: Franz X. Gernstl, Fidelis Mager, Starring: Mustafa, Enver Akin, Fatih Akin, Cem Akin, Adam Bousdoukos

Filmed in 2001 as part of a 12 documentary series commissioned for German television under the series’ title “Denk ich an Deutschland…” (When I think of Germany), “Wir Haben Vergessen Zurückzukehren” is Akin’s first documentary film.  
 
Akin begins his search for his familial and cultural roots in Hamburg’s Altona District, not only the city of his birth, but also the city where his parents first arrived in the 1960’s as part of the German government’s “Guest-worker” program.  Akin and his camera follow his parents as they go about their daily lives, both at work and at home, allowing them to speak about their professional as well as personal experiences in their adoptive home. 
Akin’s quest ultimately leads him to the small Turkish fishing village on the Black Sea that his parents left behind in search of a new life in Germany. Akin’s film offers not only an intimate portrait of his roots, but also provides unique insight into what Germany means to its many immigrants.
 
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS:

Nuremberg Film Festival „Turkey-Germany“ 2003
Best Documentary


FOLLOWED BY THE CUT @ 8:15

THE CUT
Germany/France/Italy/Poland/Russia 2013/2014, 139 min., English, Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish and Spanish with English Subtitles 
Writer-Director: Fatih Akin, Cinematography: Rainer Klausmann, Editor: Andrew Bird, Music: Alexander Hacke, Producers: Fatih Akin, Karl Baumgartner, Reinhard Brundig, Nurhan Sekerci, Flaminio Zadra, Starring: Tahar Rahim, Simon Abkarian, Makram J. Khoury, Hindi Zahra, Kevork Malikyan, Bartu Kücükcaglayan

1915: Armenian blacksmith Nazaret Manoogian (Rahim) lives in Mardin, north-eastern Mesopotamia, with his wife Rakel (Zahra) and their twin daughters Arsinée and Lucinée (Zein and Dina Fakhoury). During the First World War, the political winds turn and the minorities of the Ottoman Empire suddenly acquire enemy status. One night, Turkish gendarmes arrest Nazaret, his brother Hrant (Gazi), and their brother-in-law Vahan (Georgiou), leaving behind Nazaret’s wife and daughters.

Separated from his family, Nazaret is forced to toil in the desert as a forced laborer, where he survives an execution squad and flees.  Assisted by various deserters, refugees and others, Nazaret surivives, experiencing the end of the First World War in Aleppo, Syria. Learning that his daughters have also survived, Nazaret sets out on a quest to search for the girls that will lead him from the Mesopotamian deserts, across the ocean to Havana, Cuba  and finally to the barren prairies of North Dakota.

Director Martin Scorcese describes THE CUT as “...a genuine, hand-made epic, of the type that people just don’t make anymore. In other words, a deeply personal response to a tragic historical episode, that has great intensity, beauty and sweeping grandeur. This picture is very precious to me, on many levels.” 






$1 validated parking (for events only) on weekdays after 6:00 pm and all day on weekends in the Wilshire Courtyard West underground garage-P1. We are unfortunately unable to offer validated parking during regular business hours.