Obst & Gemüse

Stores and walkways crammed with artificial flowers, clothes, mini Buddha statues and numerous other Asian-made goods. These are intertwined with nail salons, barbershops, stalls serving up steaming food and the wares of meat and fish merchants. The location is Berlin’s Dong Xuan Center where, though he knows not a word of Vietnamese, Harry searches in vain for aubergines for Mr Nguyễn’s shop. The latter headed to East Germany as a contract worker back in the eighties and now labours daily in order to provide his son with a better future. Business is a struggle however, Harry’s commitment leaves a lot to be desired and then, as if matters couldn’t get any worse, his son Đức drops out of university.

This comedy from directing student Đức Ngô Ngọc, himself the son of a former contract worker from Vietnam, was produced at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. Light-hearted and witty, the film portrays both a chaotic clash of cultures, as well as the generational divide between parent and child. DD