DREI KAMERADINNEN

Saya, Hani and Kasih, friends since childhood, meet again at a wedding. Their reunion marks the beginning of a story that sheds light on the social realities shaping their lives: racist and sexist abuse is part of their everyday lives, while experiences of discrimination and social exclusion steer the trajectories of their lives. However different the friends may be, they are all too familiar with the feeling of not belonging, of being under constant suspicion, and of the fear of standing out. As right-wing parties steadily gain power and neo-Nazis capture media attention, the three women are forced again and again to see their own experiences of violence questioned and reframed. But when, shortly after the wedding, an arson attack on a residential building makes headlines and Saya is under suspicion, it becomes clear who – at least in this story – controls the narrative.

Güvendiren, who for many years has engaged with racism, right-wing extremism and cultures of remembrance through her documentary work, now turns to adapting a novel for the first time. In DREI KAMERADINNEN, she has found an intelligent, multi-layered narrative that, with subtle wit, repeatedly invites us to question our own patterns of response. With loyalty and friendship, it sets a firm counterpoint to hatred and far-right terror.