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Bus Riders

This is the prologue of the project featuring thinkers like Murat Belge, Latife Tekin, Bekir Ağırdır, Ünsal Oskay and Ulrike Dufner, who embark in a bus ride inspired by the cult Turkish film “Bus Riders” from 1961. While “driving through” all coming episodes, the basic philosophy behind this documentary is revealed through their conversation. Our bus riders, a sociologist, two writers, a field researcher/analyst and a foreigner, come to the common conclusion that apart from current issues like migration from rural areas to the metropolises and migration to Germany, Turkey will be profoundly influenced from the global movement of mankind in the near future, due to its historical and geographical situation.

In this episode, we also understand that a very popular Turkish tune, “Why did I ever come to Istanbul?” which was actually first sung by an Armenian who for obvious reasons had to sail to the US in the beginning of the last century. He sang, “Why did I ever come to America?”. It becomes even more baffling, when a Kurdish mother of five children asks the same question about her adventure with her family to reach Germany in an illegal refugee boat via Italy, stuffed together with refugees from Asia and Africa.