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Turkish for Beginners

Lena Schneider is annoyed. Actually, she just wants to be left alone, but nothing will come of it: the high school graduate from Berlin, who is dissatisfied with her overall situation, has to squeeze onto a plane to take off with mother Doris towards Thailand, where boisterous party nights are said to be waiting for the two of them. Already on board the machine, Lena makes the acquaintance of Cem Öztürk, who thinks he is a cool checker. The result: you spontaneously dislike each other. The beach holiday under the palm trees that Doris had hoped for then went very differently than planned: a cloud of ash forced the plane to make an emergency landing in the middle of the Indian Ocean. All passengers survive, but when Lena comes to her senses, she finds herself on a deserted island. Not quite so lonely and deserted, however: Ironically, Cem, his sister Yagmur and the Greek Costa also ended up on the island. Lena is not at all enthusiastic about this involuntary culture clash, mainly because she finds Cem's rowdy macho manners extremely off-putting. At least the motley group manages to establish radio contact with their parents: Doris Schneider and Metin Öztürk, father of Cem and Yagmur, have meanwhile been brought safely to the shared holiday hotel and are there in the process of indulging in a hot dalliance. Meanwhile, her kids are waiting for the promised rescue, and at some point things spark between them, too, although Cem has a real talent for getting Lena up one of the numerous palm trees again and again. The encounter with a treacherous sea urchin doesn't make things any better either, leading to the stranded having to realize that they don't have the island all to themselves after all. But if Lena had to choose between Cem Öztürk and a ravenous cannibal - she would probably choose the native. Or not?

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Cast & Crew See All

Josefine Preuß
Lena Schneider
Elyas M'Barek
Cem Öztürk
Anna Stieblich
Doris Schneider

Awards

  • 2012 - German Comedy Award - Best Feature Film Comedy (Beste Kinokomödie) - winner
  • 2012 - Bambi - Film - National - winner
  • 2013 - Audience Award - - winner
  • 2013 - German Film Critics Award - Best Feature Film Debut (Bestes Spielfilmdebüt) - nominated

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