Lola + Bilidikid

Kutlug Ataman tells the story of a “double migration,” first to Berlin and then from homophobicnfamily structures into the “family” of drag queens, which have become well known in the Berlin district S0 36, and several smaller clubs. 17-year-old Murat is confronted by the authority of his homophobic brother, Osman. He also learns that another brother, “Lola”, has already been banned from the family by Osman. The strong presence of desire and power within the family takes up motifs from Fassbinder’s Whity. In his/her “gay family,” Queen Lola, in turn, must deal with the no less violently expressed desire of his/her lover for heterosexual normality. The few purely German main protagonists are depicted in an exaggerated way from the perspective of Turkish-German Berliners. “Divisions and contradictions are important in this story. We chose locations around Berlin to reflect this. Berlin is a city of different realities, like in Istanbul where you have the division of East and West and the river breaking the city into two. Moreover, there are two axes in the film: the upper world and the underworld. My main character starts in the upper world of the family and travels down into the underworld of the transvestites and the gay scene. In the underworld, the camera is frantic, hand-held and uses gritty, true colours, while the upper world is more ordered. However, sometimes, the two worlds collide so that a dolly shot suddenly becomes hand-held”. (Kutlug Ataman)