Oktay Çagla

From 9/11 to the Ukraine War: Five lifeworlds of post-migrant people in Germany, that have taken an unwanted turn in the shadow of public discourse.

After a fight on the soccer field, Melek was suspended for three months by the sports court, her proud father, Ferhat tries to cope with the disappointment and continue pursuing his daughter’s dream of becoming a professional soccer player. But Melek is distancing herself not only from her father but also from the sport that once bound them so closely together, and suddenly, her father’s expectations, unfulfilled dreams, and his daughter’s suppressed aggression collide.

Following the death of their father, seven siblings return home after years apart. While her brothers seek to divide and sell the family property, Zerin refuses to surrender the inheritance she has earned through years of sacrifice. Her resistance ignites a conflict that exposes hidden secrets, shifting loyalties, and traditions that have shaped the family for generations.

A tourist exposed to heat in an all-inclusive hotel; a family father injured in his masculinity; and a packer who succumbs to a Sisyphean task while delivering a closet. Three short events merge to a novel about powerlessness during summer season at the Turkish Aegean Sea, where overheating, shame and class conditions belong to the burden of everyday life in a deeply divided society.

Hülya is a young German-Turkish writer. Several years after the death of her father, she decides to write a novel about him. In order to get to know him better, she travels to Damal, the place where her father was born and grew up. She meets the people from his youth and reconstructs his life there - at school, at home and in the expansive landscape around the village. While she observes, she does not always get an equally positive picture of her father and the dramatic events that shaped his life and hers. Confusing memories fall into place. At the same time, present, past, reality and fantasy start mingling increasingly naturally and it becomes more and more clear that memory is a far-from-infallible instrument. Nature, idyllically one time and mercilessly next, forms the atmospheric decor for this reflection on the value of family bonds, love and honour.

From 9/11 to the Ukraine War: Five lifeworlds of post-migrant people in Germany, that have taken an unwanted turn in the shadow of public discourse.