''40 qm Deutschland'' ( en, 40 Square Meters of Germany, link=yes) is a 1986 West German film directed by

Tevfik Başer Tevfik Başer (born 12 January 1951) is a Turkish-German film director and screenwriter. His film ''Lebewohl, Fremde'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Filmography * '' Zwischen Gott und Erde'' ...

, who helped both with the script and the production. The film won several awards making it one of the most significant German movies of 1986.

Production

40 qm Deutschland was first released on 31 July 1986. The shooting of the movie took 21 days, but the following editing seven weeks. With only 450,000 DM (c. US$280,000) spent on its output, it was a low-budget production. The only setting is a 40 m² apartment in an old building in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. Başer, who was chasing a vision he had been fostering for some time, procured the

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

, the

script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

, the direction, the crew and the location almost all by himself. The church musician Claus Banzer ended up being in charge of the music, Izzet Akay was trusted with the camera and the lead actress Özay Fecht was already known as a jazz singer. Six months prior to the premiere, Baser explained his reasons for the project to the

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (FR) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-pa ...

: :''I want to try to show and clarify some of the thoughts and feelings of people who belong to a foreign culture, about which I criticize some parts but which I also understand because of its tradition. I want the Germans to get to know us, because the unknown is scary and produces hate, as you can see based on the demonstrations against the Turks. Because of that I show the circumstances of the foreign workers in Germany based on this example without even leaving the apartment.''

References

External links

* 1985 films West German films Films set in Hamburg Immigration to Germany 1980s German-language films 1980s Turkish-language films Films directed by Tevfik Başer 1980s German films {{1980s-Germany-film-stub German multilingual films