By Büke Schwarz
Read the German original ↗
This article was published in German. The original text opens in a new tab in the German section of this website.
A Turkish proverb says “Bir lisan, bir insan. Iki lisan, iki insan.” Roughly translated: “He who speaks one language is only one person; but he who speaks two languages counts as two people.”
How strongly does the surrounding culture shape individuals, and what happens when you grow up with two cultures? There is no single model biography. Instead there are six wonderful variations of living with two cultures.
“Through us, people come together. They all merge into one society,” says Ali Köken as he builds a new puppet for his shadow theater. Ali Köken is one of the six protagonists in Filiz Demirci’s documentary “I Like Sucuk, You Like Sauerkraut!”. As a puppeteer of the traditional Turkish shadow theater Karagöz & Hacivat, he contributes to cultural integration. “Theater is a whole. It explains people to people. Whether Turkish or European, in the theater only the human being counts,” says Ali Köken. Six episodes, six people, six lives, six passions. In 30 minutes you get to know Gönül Şen-Menzel, Ertu Kile, Burak Fahri Içer, Didem Sözen, Ali Köken and Fuat Arslan. All live in Germany and tell how they live in and with both cultures, the Turkish and the German.
Gönül Şen-Menzel, for example. She is an artist, has lived in Germany for 32 years and devotes herself entirely to painting. She does not deny her origins; rather, she emphasizes her connection to both cultures: “Germany is not just my second homeland. It has become my home. But I grew up in Turkey. I had a wonderful time in both countries.” For Ertu Kile, a fashion sales representative at the company FALKE, on the other hand, home is where he earns his money. He was one of the first foreigners in the company, and in his experience recognition is based on performance: “I believe acceptance has to be earned in general. It’s too easy to say: ‘Well, I won’t be accepted anyway because I’m Turkish.’ I don’t see it that way.”
“I Like Sucuk, You Like Sauerkraut!” – the title seems to draw cultural boundaries. In fact, it plays with established clichés and, with its casual wording, aims to soften precisely these boundaries and build bridges. “Liking” defines a preference – and preferences are easier to tolerate and accept. The crude cliché the title evokes has nothing to do with the film’s content. Quite the opposite: you get to know six interesting and determined people who realize their dreams in different ways and are richer by one culture in their hearts.
Through the targeted use of visual analogies, Filiz Demirci repeatedly highlights the interplay of cultures and the professional determination of the individuals. Beautiful close-ups of hands appear throughout the episodes and become a symbol of achievement and passion. They are the hands of the individual characters. Hands that create something. Hands that paint, build, sensitively stroke a fabric, lovingly prepare dolma or an espresso.
Visually, the individual episodes are structured by a consistent change from black-and-white to color footage; acoustically, by the recurring change between Turkish and German. In view of the omnipresent debate about migration and integration, the film offers an interesting insight into the lives and careers of people who connect two cultures.
Shot in 2013, the documentary “I Like Sucuk, You Like Sauerkraut!” is Filiz Demirci’s first film.
(It premiered on December 21, 2014, at the Lichtblick cinema in Berlin, with Filiz Demirci present in person. In honor of Gönül Şen-Menzel, the film will be released online on March 29, 2015, the anniversary of her death.)
Original caption (film still): “I made art both in Germany and in Turkey.”
