Movie Review

Directed by Houchang Allahyari, starring: Karl Markovics (Stefan Strohmeyer), Julia Stemburger (Marion Strohmeyer), Ahmet Ugurlu (Emre Domnez) Meltem Cumbul (Mrs. Domnez), German and Turkish with English subtitles, 138 minutes, 2000.

This is a funny but very touching story in a time when all Western countries are very concerned about the security of their borders; the "threat" of Islam and governments are sensitive to the effect of immigration policies.

Stefan and Marion Strohmeyer are upper middle class Viennese. He is Under Secretary for the Interior and she is an academic. They are pregnant and their long expected child Karil is born in the midst of an uptight Austrian family. They are in a private room that is suddenly invaded by the exuberant Turkish Domnesz family who are put in the Strohmeyer room because the hospital is crowded. There is a row between the two fathers while the doctors and nursing sisters try and sort out the confusion. The babies' name bracelets aren't even ready yet and finally the Domnez family is driven out to other quarters. One of the Sisters has reservations but it is all smoothed over and the families happily go home with their new baby boys.

The Domnez's have trouble registering the birth because, while they have been in Austria for ten years and are gainfully employed their marriage is not recognized and Emri would be required to have a paternity test to prove that he is the father of the child. They are threatened with deportation and end up; you guessed it, in Stefan's office as the government minister who can sort this out. He assures them that all is in order and they can relax, neglecting to tell them that there is a critical application they must make to the Ministry of Immigration.

Time passes. The nursing sister comes by to tell the Strohmeyers of the mix-up and they rush over to the apartment to inform the Domnez's that the child with them is not theirs, only to discover that Stefan's department has been responsible for deporting the Domnez's back to Turkey! They head for Turkey at break neck speed and miraculously find the Domnesz family in a little town just at the point their car breaks down. It is a Mercedes and draws lots of attention and the villagers are naturally suspicious. Emri flies into a rage (who wouldn't!) that his nemesis, responsible for deporting him back to miserable conditions in which he feels like a stranger again, is actually in his village! The men are competitive but the mothers strike up an alliance and seem to have more common ground. All the parents face agonizing choices. Each of them has bonded with the child they thought was theirs and each recognizes that there would be significant losses to simply trading infants, although the Strohmeyers naturally assume that they could provide better opportunities for their 'real son'.

They devise a plan to smuggle the Domnezs back to Austria in order to have paternity tests done and sort the matter out once and for all! The border crossing is both amusing and fraught with anxiety. They almost make it through the help of a hooker with a good heart and a long haul truck driver who is bribed (for an unusual fee!) to stow Emri in the back. Alas they are caught because a baby cries in the trunk of the Mercedes and they become a cause celebre back in Vienna.

The families appear on a popular TV show, which forces the hand of the Immigration Minister to intervene and personally straighten out all the immigration problems. The fathers then take the sons and themselves off to a clinic to get the paternity straightened out but at the last minute decide to live with the ambiguity of not knowing whose child is whose, since they love the children that are "theirs" and don't want to separate them. It is an ideal ending to this Comic Parable but even knowing the outcome, you will still enjoy the story.

The film is timely and highlights both the implicit and inherent racism in many contemporary immigration stories. Immigration and refugee claims is a tough business to which Christians and Jews bring a clear but unpopular perspective; a perspective not universally supported in either faith tradition. Both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures have strong statements about inclusion of the stranger at the gate and welcoming those from the margins. Our self-identity is as sojourners, pilgrims and strangers in a strange land. To some extent we all live in Absurdistan as our 'sojourner identity' clashes with our 'dominant culture identity'.