It all started years ago during a lunch break with a cup of coffee. We (Öykü and Özgür – employees of the cultural department of the city of Dortmund) talked about the old Turkish film classics (like hababam sinifi – the chaotic class). We, the people with a Turkish background, know all these films. Some of the funny, thought-provoking, sometimes sad dialogues we know by heart. But seen it in the cinema? No, nobody has seen these films in the cinema. So the idea came up: why not show these films in the cinema, technically edited and subtitled in German? We asked friends, colleagues and family members for their opinions. The answer was always: ‘Great idea – I’ll come round.’

The idea of the Türkische Filmtage was therefore not only to present films from Turkey to the urban society, but also to give people of Turkish origin living here in particular the opportunity to experience the so-called ‘Yeşilҫam’ films (film classics of Turkish cinema culture) from the 1970/80s on a cinema screen for the first time. With the realisation of this idea, we are probably unique in Germany.