EXILE NEVER ENDS
documentary, Germany, 2024, 100 min
Director Bahar Bektaş
Production Pink Shadow Films, Kassel / D
Cinematographer Meret Madörin & Antonia Kilian
Distribution jip Filmverleih
Montage Arash Asadi
Production Manager Bettina Morlock
Founded by Hessenfilm & ZDF/Das Kleine Fernsehspiel
Script Bahar Bektaş, Tobias Carlsberg
Awards & nominations
Grimme Preis for best cinematography, 2025
Grimme Preis for best documentary, 2025
Hessischer Filmpreis, Best Documentary, 2024
FIPRESCI Award at 45. Filmfestval Max Ophüls Prize, 2024
FFF Talent Award at DOK.fest Munich, 2024
Special Jury Prize, Adana Altin Koza Film Festival, Turkey, 2024
Nomination Roman-Brodmann-award, 2024
Festivals (selection)
45th Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival, documentary competition, 2024
20th Achtung Berlin Filmfestival, documentary competition, 2024
Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International, 2024
Filmfestival Türkei Deutschland, 2024
DOK.fest Munich, 2024
Adana Altin Koza Film Festival, Turkey, 2024
35. Ankara Film Festival, Turkey, 2024
Synopsis
Deportation after more than 30 years in Germany - What happened that it could come so far? And what’s next for the family? The 40-year-old screenwriter and social worker BAHAR is confronted with these questions when she learns that her brother TANER (38) is to be deported to Turkey. When exactly will the deportation take place? Will Taner get out of prison? And will a new start in Turkey be possible for the family? Bahar uses this time of waiting and uncertainty to hold the camera on her family members. In calm and sensitive imagery, she explores the family’s emotional and geographical worlds of uprooting and new beginnings between Germany and Turkey - while Taner’s feelings and thoughts in prison are explored only through his voice in phone calls. With this film, Bahar claims a territory for her family while being squeezed between two countries and a state of in-between.
