EXILE NEVER ENDS

Pink Shadow Films

Taner, the director’s brother, is in prison in Germany and is about to be deported to Turkey. Bahar Bektas uses the time of waiting to point the camera at her family members.

In conversations with her parents Yildiz and Mustafa as well as her brothers Taner and Onur, she goes on a painful journey into the past. Political persecution of the Alevi-Kurdish family in Turkey, the flight to Europe in 1989, several racist attacks, depression and excessive demands on the parents – the effects on the three siblings are different. Dealing with the experiences and strokes of fate causes different reactions in them. Bektas quickly realizes that the uncertainty about Taner’s fate in Turkey is only a reflection of her life experience as a family in exile.

DOCUMENTARY

length: 98 MINUTES
screener: DCP; 16:9; COLOUR
sound: DOLBY DIGITAL
year of release: 2024
languages: GERMAN, TURKISH

AUTHOR AND DIRECTOR

BAHAR BEKTAŞ

CO-AUTHORS ARASH ASADI AND TOBIAS CARLSBERG

CINEMATOGRAPHY ANTONIA KILIAN UND MERET MADÖRIN

EDITING ARASH ASADI

SOUND LARA MILENA BROSE, ANTONIA KILIAN, MERET MADÖRIN

SOUNDDESIGN JAN PASEMANN

RE-RECORDING ANDREAS RADZUWEIT

MUSIC AHMET ASLAN

COLOURS SALLY SHAMAS

EDITING ASSISTANTS DAN GATZMAGA UND FION GEORGE

TITELDESIGN LISA BRÜNING

DRAMATURGICAL CONSULTANTS STEFAN KRUMBIEGEL & EMIN ALPER

PRODUCTION MANAGER BETTINA MORLOCK

COMMISSIONING EDITOR SARA GÜNTER

PRODUCER ANTONIA KILIAN

A PINK SHADOW FILMS PRODUCTION IN COPRODUCTION WITH ZDF/ DAS KLEINE FERNSEHSPIEL

FUNDED BY HESSENFILM & MEDIEN

DEVELOPED IN FRAMEWORK OF EURODOC22

PITCHED AT DOK.MARKET @ DOK.FEST MÜNCHEN

MAX OPHÜLS FILMFESTIVAL – Film Critics Award for Best Documentary

ACHTUNG BERLIN FILMFESTIVAL

INTERNATIONAL LICHTER FILMFESTIVAL FRANKFURT

DOK.FEST MUNICH

GERMAN TURKISH FILMFESTIVAL NURENBERG

“Exile means to leave home. For my family, it meant that the feeling of not having arrived never stopped. The longing for one’s home does not stop. It is something that shapes you the second you leave or have to flee.” (Bahar Bektaş in an interview with Deutschlandfunk Kultur)

“A family in a permanent state of emergency. We see them struggling for a normal life between the conflicting priorities of past and future, integration and the preservation of their own cultural identity. The cohesion of the family is just as unstable as the concept of home. An initially fragmentary narrative of hints and omissions impressively coalesces into an intimate and powerful portrait. Director Bahar Bektaş makes us painfully aware: EXILE NEVER ENDS.” (Jury statement Filmfestival Max Ophüls)

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