Lola and Billy the Kid
(Lola & Bilidkid)
Directed by Kutlug Ataman.
With Baki Davrak, Brdal Yildiz.
Germany, 1999, 35mm, color, 91 min.
German with English subtitles.
With Baki Davrak, Brdal Yildiz.
Germany, 1999, 35mm, color, 91 min.
German with English subtitles.
Kutlug Ataman’s highly charged thriller takes us into the shadowy world of Berlin’s gay Turkish émigrés, who live lives of constant double jeopardy due to the extreme homophobia within their own ethnic culture and from German xenophobes as well. This compelling film is at once a tale of family tragedy and a rare look at Berlin’s notable Turkish immigrant transvestite community. Kutlug Ataman began his filmmaking career in Turkey but left after being detained and tortured for shooting Super-8 footage of political events leading up to the 1980 coup.