Swiss boycott
December 3, 2009
Fatih Akin announced on Thursday that he will not attend the film's Swiss premiere as protest against the recent referendum banning the construction of minarets.
In an open letter to the Swiss press, Akin said that the outcome of the referendum "conflicts with my understanding of humanism, tolerance and the belief that harmonious co-existence of peoples of differing backgrounds, races and religions must be possible."
In the Swiss vote last Sunday, more than 57 percent backed a proposal by a right-wing party for a constitutional ban on the building of minarets.
Akin has now refused to travel to Switzerland because, "as a child of Muslim parents who do not see minarets as symbols of political Islam but rather simply the complete architecture of their houses of worship, I feel personally affected by this referendum."
Muslims, at home in Europe
Born in the northern German city of Hamburg to Turkish parents in 1973, the lives of Turkish-Germans are a recurring theme in many of Akin's films. His recent works Head-On (Gegen die Wand, 2004) and The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite, 2007), which both dealt with themes of German-Turkish biculturality, garnered international acclaim and established him as one of Germany's premier filmmakers.
His latest movie, Soul Kitchen, is a light-hearted look at the broader multicultural mix in his home town. It won this year's Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, and Akin was due to present the film at its Swiss premiere in Zurich on December 16th.
The referendum result has angered Muslims around the world. In an interview published on Wednesday, Turkey's Minister for European Affairs, Egemen Bagis, called on Turkish citizens to take their money out of Swiss banks in protest at the result of the referendum.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has described the ban as clearly discriminatory, and said that it risked putting Switzerland on a collision course with its international human rights obligations.
cc/AFP/dpa
Editor: Matt Hermann