Turkish-German Comedy Goes Archival: Alamanya—Willkommen in Deutschland (2011)

Summary

IN 2011, YASEMIN AND NESRIN SAMDERELI's family comedy Almanya— Willkommen in Deutschland (Almanya: Welcome to Germany, 2011) burst onto German screens with a comedic yet nostalgic re-telling of the history of fifty years of Turkish labor migration to Germany. A surprise hit at the Berlinale film festival, Almanya has been referred to as “A Good Bye Lenin! for migration histories” by a number of reviewers. Indeed, elements common to both films include a nostalgic representation of a difficult history, a rich and warm visual style which combines fiction with documentary footage, and an assertion of the place of previously marginalized histories in the broader narrative of Germany's past. As one of Almanya's stars suggests, the film can thus be read as a “Denkmal” (monument) to the achievements of the first generation of labor migrants to Germany; an observation that highlights the comedy's very serious intervention in the relationship between Germany's memory culture and its postmigrant citizens.

A key element in the creation of this monument is the film's use of photographs and archival footage that document the history of labor migration. While the Samdereli sisters honed their craft on comedy series such as Türkisch für Anfänger (Turkish for Beginners), with Almanya they provide what one might call a “Migrationsgeschichte fur Anfanger” (migration history for beginners). Given the prominent presence of the materials of memory within the film, this article will explore the role that the archive, as both a material and symbolic resource, has to play here. As I will show, Almanya takes a playful approach to the archive, actively and openly inserting fictional characters into the documentary footage which frames the film's main narrative. The film can thus be situated as an unusually comedic contribution to a specifically postmigrant archival turn; a turn that I argue is now taking place particularly amongst Turkish- German artists working in a range of media and genres.

While archival materials can help evidence overlooked histories, lending weight to claims for recognition, the discourse of authenticity that the turn to such materials entails has frequently been identified as problematic in recent years.