German-Turkish film festival charts forgotten lives of WWII refugees

For the organizers of the 21st German-Turkish Film Festival in Nuremberg, there is one side of Europe's refugee story that remains to be told. The festival will open on March 4 with the documentary "Haymatloz" by German director Eren Önsöz, which tells the story of university professors driven out of their positions by the Nazis in 1933.

Thousands of them fled to Turkey, where they helped to develop the university system under the founder of today's republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Turks make up the largest ethnic group in Germany with over 1.5 million people, according to government figures. The event also aims to shine a light on Europe's current refugee crisis, in which Germany and Turkey play important roles as host countries.

A March 7 discussion titled "Quo vadis Europa?" ("Where are you going, Europe?") invites German Islamic scholar Ludwig Ammann and Turkish director Ezel Akay to talk about how the influx of arrivals is shaping European identity.

This year's honorary prize-winner Kadir İnanır has been described by festival director Adil Kaya as one of Turkish cinema's most popular stars. "He also campaigns for peace between the Kurds and the Turkish state," Kaya said at a press conference on Friday. Among the 42 films on the program in the southern German city are countless national premiers The film festival was founded in 1992 as an event for a predominantly Turkish-speaking audience, but today it shows subtitled works from both countries. Around half of its 10,000 visitors are German.