2 - Ghetto Filmscapes and the Politics of the Ghetto Film

Summary

Das ist unsere Geschichte, eine Geschichte ohne Anfang und ohne Ende, alles dreht sich im Kreis, alles kehrt wieder. Eigentlich ist es keine Geschichte, es ist ein Zustand, ein Ausnahmezustand. (Ertan in Kanak Attack, 2000)

[This is our story, a story without a beginning and without an end, everything is a cycle, everything recurs. It really isn't a story, it's a state, a state of exception.]

Wenn du der Beste sein willst, dann musst du Respekt kriegen, und wenn du Respekt kriegen willst, dann darfst du keinem anderen Respekt zeigen. Und wenn du keinem anderen Respekt zeigst, dann denken die Leute irgendwann, du hast den Respekt erfunden, Alter. (Isa aka “Chiko” in Chiko, 2008)

[If you want to be the best, you have to earn respect, and in order to earn respect, you cannot show respect to anyone. And if you do not show respect to anyone, people start to believe that you invented respect, man].

Ghetto Films, German Film, and Cityscapes

IN THE FILM KANAK ATTACK (2000) the main protagonist Ertan Ongun understands life as a never-ending cycle, a story where everything recurs. He is constantly on the move but always returns to where he started. Then Ertan corrects himself: the story is not really a story; it's a state, a permanent state of exception. The story and the aesthetics of the film Kanak Attack reflect this tension between circular movement and stagnation.

Isa aka Chiko, the main character in Chiko (2008), presents his life philosophy as a way out of life's hopeless repetitive cycle.