THREE FRIENDS

Saya, Hani, and Kasih, friends since childhood, meet for a wedding. Their reunion becomes the starting point for a narrative that spotlights the social reality of the three women: racist and sexist hostility are part of their daily lives. Experiences of discrimination and social exclusion shape their biographies. As different as the friends may be, they know too well the feeling of not belonging, of being under constant suspicion, and the fear of standing out. While right-wing parties relentlessly gain power and neo-Nazis cause a stir in the media, the three women repeatedly experience their own experiences of violence being questioned and reinterpreted. But when, shortly after the wedding, an arson attack on an apartment building makes headlines and Saya becomes the target of investigations, it powerfully shows who—at least in this narrative—controls the narrative.

Ayşe Güvendiren, who has focused on racism, right-wing extremism, and the culture of remembrance in her documentary work for many years, is now adapting a novel for the first time. In DREI KAMERADINNEN (THREE COMRADES), she has found a clever, multi-layered story that, with subtle wit, repeatedly makes us question our own reaction patterns. With loyalty and friendship, she sets a decisive counterpoint to hate and right-wing terror.