Abstract / Description of output
In his films Fatih Akin often explores his protagonists’ masculinity in interaction with narrative frameworks that reveal the link between the national and the transnational. Having produced a gangster film (Kurz und schmerzlos [Short Sharp Shock], 1998) and a film that centres on marginal masculinity (Gegen die Wand [Head On], 2004), Akin has most recently shifted his attention to domestic or local heroes. The male protagonists in Soul Kitchen (2009) – a, according to Akin, »Heimatfilm der neuen Art« (»Heimatfilm of a new kind«) – have left their ›migrant‹ or ›in-between‹ identities behind and found their identities in a local place (Hamburg) rather than in Germany as a whole.
This article examines how Soul Kitchen engages with the ›Heimatfilm‹ and how it enriches this genre with transcultural elements. It looks into how ›Heimat‹ is re-defined in a post-migrant Hamburg by reference to the film’s male protagonists. The central question is what Akin’s detachment from the portrayal of post-migrants as aggressive, marginalised men and his current focus on domesticated forms of masculinity say about a possibly changing perception of men from »the margins of society«. Have post-migrants actually arrived in German society?
This article examines how Soul Kitchen engages with the ›Heimatfilm‹ and how it enriches this genre with transcultural elements. It looks into how ›Heimat‹ is re-defined in a post-migrant Hamburg by reference to the film’s male protagonists. The central question is what Akin’s detachment from the portrayal of post-migrants as aggressive, marginalised men and his current focus on domesticated forms of masculinity say about a possibly changing perception of men from »the margins of society«. Have post-migrants actually arrived in German society?
| Translated title of the contribution | "A Heimatfilm of a New Kind": Domesticated Masculinity in Fatih Akin's Sould Kitchen |
|---|---|
| Original language | German |
| Pages (from-to) | 131-144 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Zeitschrift für interkulturelle Germanistik |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
| Event | Lokalität und Männlichkeit im zeitgenössischen deutschsprachigen Film: Fatih Akins Soul Kitchen’ - Cumberland Lodge, United Kingdom Duration: 8 Dec 2010 → 10 Dec 2010 |