Fremd. Yaban.

Right at the start, Adem injures himself on a plant. The thorn is stuck deep in his finger. Right at the start of a visit from Meryem, his mother. She has a hard time with the stairs.
With just a few precise strokes, director and writer Hakan Savaş Mican creates a vivid portrait of just how much distance now lies between mother and son. Meryem’s visit puts Adem’s sociocultural self-image to the test. An architecture student, he sees himself as belonging to a different class than the migrant worker milieu to which he ascribes his mother. With a keen grasp of situational comedy, FREMD challenges its protagonist, played by Ismail Sahin.
The film was shot almost entirely within one small apartment using a cool color palette. Despite its formal austerity, this chamber drama has considerable warmth, thanks to the character of Meryem, played by Sema Poyraz.
Equally remarkable is Hakan Savaş Mican’s masterful use of objects. There is that thorn in the finger at the start and a pair of slippers left outside a room at the end – an everyday object that conveys deep feeling nonetheless. (Biene Pilavci)

Hakan Savaş Mican, born in 1978 in West Berlin. He first studied architecture, followed by film directing. Since 2008, Mican has been working in theatre, taking on the role of resident director at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theatre in 2013. He has also written numerous plays, such as “Der Besuch” and the city trilogy “Berlin Oranienplatz”, “Berlin Karl-Marx-Platz” and “Berlin Kleistpark.”

Production company Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB) (Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany). Director Hakan Savaş Mican. Cinematography Matthias Biber. Editing Hakan Savaş Mican. Sound Marko Weichler. Art director Jana Findeklee. Costumes Nicole Hutmacher. Make-up Sharon Partusch. Assistant director Karlotta Ehrenberg. Executive Producers Christoph Heller, Thomas Jörg. With İsmail Şahin, Sema Poyraz, Murat Karabey, Roja Mert.

Films: 2007: Fremd. Yaban.. 2008: Adems Sohn (30 min.). 2009: 24h Berlin (segment "Rapper"). 2010: 20 x Brandenburg (segment "Ines & Tom"). 2012: Gabriels Horn (6 min.).

Bonus Material