Reading German films from the perspective of the education of cultural exchange: Kirschblüten, Solino, Gegen die Wand, Bagdad Café
Today, there are a multitude of papers being written on films that deal with multicultural society. However, it is difficult to find research on German films that deal with multicultural societies from the educational perspective of cultural exchange. This paper chooses the following four German films and aims to examine them from that perspective – Doris Dörrie’s Kirschblüten, Fatih Akın’s Solino and Gegen die Wand, and Percy Adlon’s Bagdad Café. Kirschblüten is about longings for and communication with other cultures, Solino about cultural differences and ways to overcome them, Gegen die Wand about cultural conflicts and identities, and Bagdad Café about cultural connection and communication. What is of particular importance in handling these movies in the classroom will be to raise and discuss relevant pedagogical questions to encourage the students to contemplate the various aspects of cultural encounters as their own issue. Thus, the ultimate goal of the education should be the learning of the values of coexistence, harmony, and exchange that are required of any multicultural society.