Lost in migration

Turkish director İnan Temelkuran’s debut film, ‘Made in Europe,’ takes a look at Turkish immigrants from a totally different and fresh perspective. A group of men chat the night away in three metropolises of Europe. And the audience gets a glimpse of what is wrong with Europe, integration and… men

EMRAH GÜLER
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

Turkish director İnan Temelkuran's debut feature film, �Made in Europe,� might be the best answer to those who still believe in a single, united Europe in the face of the changing world. Migrants and their migration in search of better, more affluent lives have always been a favorite topic of cinema, especially in cultures that have a direct experience of such clashes of cultures. Having sent the first set of immigrants to Europe nearly four decades ago, and with over two million Turkish residents living in Germany alone, Turkey has always been high on this list.

One of the sources of pride for Turkey is the inspiring blend of Turkish and German, and director Fatih Akın has brought Turkish immigrants in Germany to the fore internationally with his modern classics �Duvara Karşı� (Head On) and �Yaşamın Kıyısında� (The Edge of Heaven), among others. But it was director and writer Tevfik Başer's �40 Metrekare Almanya� (40 Square Meters of Germany) that really showed the claustrophobic existence of Turks in Germany on the big screen back in the 1980s.

Though it deals with a familiar topic of cultural significance to the Turkish audience, Temelkuran's �Made in Europe� brings a totally fresh perspective to the lives of Turkish immigrants in Europe. But the movie addresses not only the Turkish audience; it is, at its best, a slap to all those celebrating cultural diversity in a Europe, fluttering in the shadow of the clash of civilizations.

Single night, three cities

�Made in Europe� takes place in a single night in three different metropolises of Europe -- Madrid, Paris and Berlin. The film can be watched as three short films or one feature with three parts. There are not any predominant plots or stories, but rather a group of characters (mostly men) in each city, talking as they do with one another. �Made in Europe� focuses on the sad existences of these men, rather than on their stories, conveying this through sharp, realistic and surprisingly shocking dialogue.

The film is shocking not because the audience is exposed to the men's superficial, obscene and meaningless dialogue, but because it immediately gives the audience a sense of pity and hopelessness. For those who have been in the gutters of the immigrant residences in otherwise wealthy and beautiful cities in Europe, the dialogue and situations resonate so true to reality one cannot help feeling a sense of voyeurism.

The topics of conversation in the film range from the mundane to the even more mundane. The men talk about refugee status, Berlusconi and foreign languages with all the refinement of a döner knife. Domestic violence, changing technology and employer/employee relations are all subjects thrown haphazardly into the mix. Temelkuran is confident in his dialogue, as he himself worked in a döner kebab shop in Madrid when he was studying to be a film director.

Four years in the making

There are no references to the Puerta del Sol, the Parisian cafes or Schloss Charlottenburg. For these men, the cities consist of confined locations that are the equivalents of the coffee houses in their towns and villages. (In fact, one of them is a replica of a traditional Turkish coffee house designed to socialize men in a sexually segregated society.)

These men are mere reflections of men in Turkey who have migrated to the country's big cities from their small towns in the last three decades, and who are still struggling to adapt to a Turkish urban middle class with its equal, demanding and strong women. In Europe, they are lost in a similar way, in a place where the traditions, the only thing they have, are seen as a joke.

The film's different men in different cities are so alive one cannot help agree with the decision of the jury at the recent Altın Koza Film Festival to hand the Best Actor award to the all of the 18 men in �Made in Europe.� The film also received the Best Director and Special Jury awards.

�Made in Europe� also deserves an ovation due to its director's unfaltering struggle since 2004 to have the movie made. With almost no production money, Temelkuran turned �Made in Europe� into a reality through personal efforts spread over four years. For this reason, the audience will have to forgive one of the film's weaknesses: the abrupt changes in structure as the movie progresses. Temelkuran said that digital filmmaking changed very much since he began working on the film, which was why the Madrid scenes were quite different from the Berlin scenes. But that is only a detail, forming a small part of the whole experience one gets while watching why men will always be men, why Europe and integration are two mutually exclusive words and why audiences will be waiting for the next film by İnan Temelkuran.

Inform,July 2008