It is with good reason that 2022 Berlinale audiences voted to give Cem Kai’s latest film the Audience Award. "Love, Deutschmarks and Death" is a daring, musical biography of contemporary Germany, written in the voices of Turkish immigrant workers – who have been coming to work in Germany since the 1950s. These included artists, and it is their experiences that lead viewers on a hypnotic journey through successive decades. From alienation and longing for their homeland, through euphoria and a sense of community, to anger and frustration. The music of Turkish immigrants has evolved and reflected the social moods of successive generations - folk, pop, rock, disco folk, heavy metal, and rap. Strikes, cassette shops, weddings for thousands of guests, the Berlin night scene, burning suits, xenophobia and racism, cruelty and ecstasy; the precisely constructed story pulsates not only to the rhythm of Turkish hits but above all to the rhythm of extraordinary stories that call into question the well-established stereotypes of contemporary Germany.

Tadeusz Strączek