Evet, I Do!
(Evet, Ich Will!)
February 3, 2009
Review by William P. Meyers

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I don't usually review love stories, even though I enjoy them. When I saw Evet I Do! at the Berlin and Beyond film festival in Point Arena, California, I decided more people need to know about it. It is currently in release in theaters in Germany. I don't know when it will see U.S. distribution.

We all know the difficulties of marriage in general, and the Romeo and Juliet type story of love forbidden by the lovers' families. Evet has these themes, but pushes them to new heights. It is set in Germany and deals with ethnic and religious minorities. In Germany the main minority is the Turks. The Turks tend to be Islamic in religious background, although many are secular. There are also many clan and ethnic rivalries within Turkey, the best know minority being the Kurds.

There are four love stories, and attempts at marriage, in Evet. The least interesting is a man who is sent from Turkey by his relatives. He has to marry a Turkish German woman in order to stay in Germany, make money, and send the money back to his family. He is willing to try this, despite actually being in love with a girl in his native villiage. When the only bride the matchmakers can find close to his own age and fat, he rejects her.

Dirk is German, a son of secular parents who have never married. He is in love with a Turkish woman he met at University. He has the Job role: the girls' father not only insists that Dirk convert to Islam, but that he and his parents jump through a number of hilarious hoops to become worthy of the bride.

You'll also see a Turk and a Kurd try to get married, which is apparenlty even more difficult than Germans marrying Turks or Kurds.

Just in case any of this seems too easy, we also have a German-Turkish gay couple trying to come out to parents who just can't imagine that their soon could be gay.

The timing is impecable and the stories are woven together tightly. Clearly the Director, Sinan Akkus, has got his craft down. Peter Nix does the camera work. In the Cast are Pinar Erincin, Mickey Hardt, Oliver Korritke, Tim Syfi, Eralp Uzun, Ingeborg Westphal, lale Yava, Idil Uner, Murtuz Yolcu, and Sinan Akkus.