The Fabulous Picture Show

Almanya

A story about a migrant community in an increasingly globalised world.

Almanya is a nostalgic and heart-warming comic celebration of German-Turkish identity, spanning three generations. Directed by Yasemin Samdereli and co-written by her sister Nesrin, the story begins in the 1960s when their grandfather, Hüseyin Yilmaz, arrived in Germany from Turkey as guest worker one million and one.

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Yasemin Samdereli and her sister Nesrin directed and wrote Almanya

Travelling in search of opportunities and becoming part of the phenomenon known as Gastarbeiter, (guest workers), Hüseyin soon settled in his adopted country, and raised a family who found themselves caught between two cultures.

Partly based on family observations and anecdotes, Almanya is not just about the experiences of Germany’s 3.5 million-strong Turkish population, but about those of any migrant community in our increasingly globalised world. With immigration becoming an increasing source of tension within Europe, Almanya delivers a timely and thought-provoking comic antidote.

Yasemin and Nesrin Samdereli talk to Amanda Palmer, Al Jazeera’s head of entertainment, and the FPS audience about ethnic identity, the power of comedy, and the experience of making a film with your sister.

Life in a Day

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Life in a Day 

Life in a Day paints a cinematic portrait of what it was like to be alive on July 24, 2010. Director Kevin Macdonald invited people from all over the world to upload their home videos onto Youtube, and tell the world what they were doing that day.

The response was overwhelming, with over 81,000 amateur filmmakers submitting more than 4,500 hours of footage.

Featuring births, deaths, weddings and everything in between, Life in a Day covers the whole gamut of human emotion and activity.

Life in a Day is the first film of its kind – a user-generated experience receiving a full cinematic release.

Busong

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Busong 

Loosely translated as karma or fate, Busong is the first indigenous feature film from Palawan, the pristine island-province of the southern Philippines.

Following Angkarang as he rediscovers his past as a shaman, and harnesses the power of his Palawan roots, Busong is replete with cultural symbolism and poetic beauty.

Shunning traditional narrative, this unusual work provides a cinematic experience that is somewhere between a dreamlike fiction and an anthropological document, celebrating nature’s power to heal and restore, and warning of the dangers of environmental exploitation.

Unlawful Killing

British actor and TV personality Keith Allen presents Unlawful Killing, a documentary exploring various theories around the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and her lover Dodi Fayed.

Suggesting that it was anything but accidental, Allen points the finger at the British establishment, and also the British media, who he claims was complicit in covering up the evidence.

Controversially funded by Dodi Fayed’s father, Mohamad Fayed, Unlawful Killing was one of the most talked-about films at this year’s Cannes film festival, despite not being part of the official selection.

This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show can be seen from Friday, July 29, at the following times GMT: Friday:
1930; Saturday: 1430; Sunday: 0430; Monday: 0830.