I’ve just come back from watching “Kebab Connection”, a new semi-independent movie following on the heels of last year’s surprise comedy success “S�perseks” and, – less obvious – Fatih Akin’s smash hit “Gegen die Wand” (Head On). The Kebab Connection is set in the Akin urban immigrant universe, is partly payed by Akin-Alumni like Sibel Kelkili, has been co-authored by him, and yet he did not direct the movie.

Well, maybe he should have. While I like Kebab Connection for what it is, a decently shot partly melancholic comedy with a good, partly impressive cast – I was particularly impressed by Nora Tschirner’s subtle yet powerful performance – the film more often than not opts for the unnecessary slapstick joke. Of course, it is likely better than most recent German comedies, but it feels too much like “Süperseks 2” (an impression certainly partly caused by casting the same leading male actor) and it doesn’t quite find the balance between the comedic elemens and the more serious themes it only scratches.

Still, this is one too see, if only to once more ponder about the fact that the better German films are recently usually set in minority or immigrant communities, cover (at least partly) minority or immigrant subjects. Clearly, that’s aided by the immigrant connection’s initial success (that’s how film subsidies work in Germany), and it indicates that “their” themes of life are also of majority interest. But it begs the question if non-minority, non-immigrant Germans have no more stories to tell that are sufficiently interesting to make it on the silver screen…