The success of Turkish German filmmaker Fatih Akın initiated new
debates on the identity of Turkish diasporic filmmakers in Germany.
While star director Akın and other Turkish German filmmakers have been
celebrated in the German media with the slogan “the new German cinema
is Turkish,” the Turkish media seems to downplay the German side of their
hyphenated identity.1 Instead, the Turkish press uses the achievements
of these Turkish filmmakers in Germany to bolster a positive image for
Turkey in an international context.
