Tuncay Baturay came to Germany from Turkey and studied Visual Communication in the film and television department at the Gesamthochschule Kassel under Manfred Vosz in the 1980s. His first film, BRIEF EINES TÜRKISCHEN STUDENTEN AN SEINE GASTGEBER, made in collaboration with Hüseyin Saygin, draws on various image archives and uses collage techniques to address the 1980 military coup in Turkey. At the same time, the film is a deeply personal account of political exile. “I want to tell you something about my home country. I live among you, in Germany, in the Federal Republic (...) Have you ever been to Turkey?” In the agitprop style of the political cinema of the time, the film condemns both human rights violations in Turkey and the Federal Republic of Germany’s complicity with the junta. Baturay’s graduation film, EINER MACHT’N BREITEN, is a documentary portrait of a Turkish teenager whom the director worked with as a social worker in Kassel. The film avoids explanatory commentary and seeks to portray the teenager’s living conditions and surroundings through close observation and interviews. Baturay manages to explore experiences of marginalization with sensitivity and an eye for both everyday and institutional racism. The film offers a nuanced portrayal of precarious living conditions in Kassel’s city centre and the complex relationships that develop between people in these circumstances.

Brief eines türkischen Studenten an seine Gastgeber / Tuncay Baturay / Germany 1982 / 13:00 min / German / 
Production: Gesamthochschule Kassel

Einer macht’n Breiten / Tuncay Baturay / Germany 1986 / 25:00 min / German /
Photography: Gehad Abo N'Gelah / Production: Gesamthochschule Kassel