Munich, Orient

Authors: Matti Bauer, Julia Furch. Human interest - BR - 2003 - 60 min

Directly next to Munich central station you can meet with the orient. „Little Istanbul“, this is how the people in Munich commonly call the district „Ludwigsvorstadt“. Here, people speak Turkish, Greek, Italian, Serbian or Croation, but hardly ever Bavarian.

The multi-cultural quarter with its fruit and vegetable shops, Turkish bars and secret backyards has become a home for many: the Turkish pizza-baker Selo who wants to obtain his driving licence; his driving instructor Sigi, who gives her lessons bilingual; the Albanian fugitive Lena and her sister Teranda. And for the dressmaker Karagöl, who opened the first Turkish tailoring business at a time, when there were still a lot more prostitutes in “Little Istanbul” than today.

But there are also people by whom the development of the quarter goes unnoticed. A registrar for the church, Lankes, has lived here all his life, and now feels pushed to the side. Carefully he voices his doubts and talks about “home” and “church”. Next door, in a mosque, people are praying to Allah. There’s a place for everyone in the “Halbmondviertel”, this is what the film wants to express – secretly hoping that it will stay this way.