Turkish for Beginners2006-2008

Director
Oliver Schmitz, Edzard Onneken, Christian Ditter

Actors

Josefine Preuss (Lena Schneider)
Anna Stieblich (Doris Schneider)
Elyas M'Barek (Cem Ozturk)
Adnan Maral (Metin Ozturk)
Pegah Ferydoni (Yagmur Ozturk)
Arnel Taci (Costa Papavassilou)

Set in the German capital Berlin, the series centers around a German woman and single mother of a teenage daughter, who starts a relationship and decides to live together with a widowed Turkish father and his two teenage children.
16-year-old Lena’s life seemed perfect: She lived together with just her little brother Nils (13) and her mother Doris, a psychotherapist. But unfortunately for Lena, her mother has fallen in love with Metin, a police officer of Turkish descent, and they move in with him and Yağmur (15), his pious Muslim daughter, and Cem (17), his stereotypical macho son. Now Lena has to deal with her new stepfamily. She narrates the show by recording videos for her best friend Kati, who is currently studying in the USA as an exchange student.
“Rarely have Germany’s public TV stations offered such a laid-back, refreshing and entertaining view of two difficult issues: migration and integration. And it’s rare indeed that Germany’s reviewers agree on the merits of a TV production – the response to ’Turkish for Beginners’ was positively euphoric. In terms of quality ’Turkish for Beginners’ is among the best productions in recent years.” – Goethe.de
“Emotions are on a rollercoaster in this award-winning ARD evening series, in which family chaos is cultivated and mutual prejudices are mixed up so skillfully that it is a real joy.” – Fernsehserien.de
“It is perfect! One of the best German series.” – Wattpad.com