WIR HABEN VERGESSEN ZURÜCKZUKEHREN

"Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren - We Forgot to Come Back" is Fatih Akin's contribution to the series "Denk ich an Deutschland - When I think of Germany", in which renowned German directors have documented their own very personal visions of their country, its particularities and its people. This series has already been screened in several festivals, like Berlin and Cologne, where it has received a lot of attention.

Hamburg based director, Fatih Akin, who won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2004 for his film "Head-On" draws a very personal portrait of a German-Turkish family. He takes the audience on a trip from Hamburg via Istanbul to Filyos, a small fishing village overlooking the Black Sea. This is the village which Akin's father left in 1965 to start a new life as "Gastarbeiter" ("guest worker") in Germany. The family originally wanted to stay for only a few years but as Akin's father says: "We simply forgot to come back." Nearly 40 years have past. Akin's father still works for the same company while his mother has become a school teacher.

Fatih Akin calls his film an "immigration film" which shows elements of the German-Turkish identities, reaching beyond stereotypes. But it can also be seen as a story about any modern German family.

This tremendous, very intimate, and sometimes comical film shows us the exchanges and movements between cultures and the possibility of mixed identities.