Cinema of the affected

Language: English

In his article 'Turkish-German cinema: from cultural resistance to transnational cinema?', Rob Burns coins this term in analogy to a trend in German literature during the 1980s known as 'Literatur der Betroffenen' (literature of the affected), which is the title of a programmatic essay by Franco Biondi and Rafik Schami in the Zu Hause in der Fremde: Ein bundesdeutsches Ausländer-Lesebuch (1981). The 'cinema of the affected' emphasises the authenticity of personal experience of guest-workers and typically dwells on the oppression and suffereing of Turkish women in Germany. It is a continuation of the guest-worker cinema of the New German Cinema, for 'the perspective it brought to bear on the alien culture was one in which the focus was unremittingly on alterity as a seemingly insoluble problem, on conflict of either an intercultural or intracultural variety.' The films of Tevfik Baser, 40 Quadratmeter Deutschland (Forty Square Metres of Germany, 1986) and Abschied vom falschen Paradies (Farewell to a False Paradise) are representative examples.

This kind of cinema can also be compared with what Cameron Bailey and Sarita Malik have called 'cinema of duty' with reference to the British context.

Cf. also Gastarbeiterkino

Example film: 40 Quadratmeter Deutschland / Forty Square Meters of Germany

References:

Rob Burns,'Turkish-German cinema: from cultural resistance to transnational cinema?', in: David Clarke (ed.), German Cinema Since Unification, London and New York, 2006, pp. 127-150, here p. 133. 

Franco Biondi and Rafik Schami, 'Literatur der Betroffenen' [Literature of the Affected], in: Christian Schaffernicht (ed.), Zu Hause in der Fremde: Ein bundesdeutsches Ausländer-Lesebuch, Fischerhude: Atelier im Bauernhaus, 1981; Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowolt, 1984, pp. 136-150.  

Posted by Daniela Berghahn on 29 Jan 2008 • Comment on this term