When two heterosexual ghetto buddies suddenly have to marry in order to save one from deportation to Africa, the result is a comedy that is as biting of a film as it is a thoughtful look at migration politics and racist and sexist prejudices.

The only way that the petty criminal Babtou can save himself from deportation to Senegal is to marry a German woman – or man. In his Frankfurt high-rise district, however, there is no woman who would be willing to marry the macho. So, without further ado Babtou's best friend Dennis steps up. As might be expected of two ghetto boys, they still spend their "wedding night" with half-naked women at a strip joint. But before the immigration office comes knocking at the door to check whether the union might not actually be a sham marriage, a queer lifestyle has to be faked as quickly as possible. Rainbow flags and a penis-shaped lamp are only the improvised beginning, because soon a world beyond their clichéd notions of homosexuality opens up to the two – but the intolerance and narrow-mindedness of their former environment also hit all the harder. For all its pointed satirical sharpness, the "buddy movie", which is told with a lot of wit and street credibility, never loses sight of its serious background and the examination of migration policies or racist and sexist prejudices.

Frederik Lang (20.01.2022)

Reviews and Commentary:

"Florian Dietrich's debut is a well-acted, original, all-round successful comedy with quick-witted dialogue and on-the-mark punchlines about racism, sexism and homophobia. Almost imperceptibly, the tone becomes more and more serious, for in the end it is about existential questions and universal values as well as the variants of friendship and love, which definitely go hand in hand."
(Knut Elstermann, Radio Eins, 23.9.2021)

"It's not so easy to categorise this film to a genre. A bit of LGBT comedy, a bit of Boys in the Hood gangster drama, a bit of suburban social study, and a lot of no-borders migration movie. If this film does do one thing, it is to show that criminal energy has much less to do with geo-ethnic origin than with a social milieu in which skin colour is not a primary characteristic but stands far behind the question of who you actually are. [...]
With his feature-film directorial debut, Florian Dietrich has made a film that knows no genre boundaries or fixed labels. Genre film has never had a real chance in Germany. That's why there's no black or white in this film, although it is about nothing other than the lives of blacks and whites within social boundaries that are much stronger than those that separate one country from another. Florian Dietrich spins both funny and tragic scenes, works against the expected, and always remains committed to a deep seriousness. Neither kitsch nor silly humour comes into play here; instead, all characters are characterised by a considerable truthfulness. The fact that Dietrich filled the lead roles with Julius Nitschkoff and Farba Dieng, two highly professional but fresh actors, is also good for the film."
(Ulrich Sonnenschein, epd Film, 27.8.2021)

"In Toubab, Florian Dietrich's directorial debut, the threat of deportation does not become the basis of a heavy social drama but the driving force for a bitingly angry comedy. [...] Director Florian Dietrich relies entirely on the charismatic amateur actor Farba Dieng, a Black man born in France and raised in Germany, whom Dietrich discovered during a street casting. [...] Florian Dietrich wrote the screenplay for his debut film together with Arne Dechow. The two have worked together for many years producing theatre pieces at the Wiesbaden Juvenile Detention Centre. This inside view to the fates of male prisoners gives the film a sense of credibility."
(Maja Hattesen, SWR2 am Morgen, 5.10.2021)

"When Dennis visits his 'husband' in Senegal, the locals meet him with stoic serenity. Or is it just hopelessness? The camera only has to go down a few streets for one to know why Babtou's father left the country, and why the man forced to return is called 'Toubab' ['the white man']. Finally, a German film that is interested in the reasons for migration – on location, and in a comedy!"
(Alexandra Wach, Film Dienst)

Production Country

Germany (DE)

Production Period

2018-2020

Production Year

2020

color

color

Aspect Ratio

Cinemascope

Duration

Feature-Length Film (61+ Min.)

Type

Feature Film

Genre

Comedy

Topic

Relationship / Family, LGBTIQ / Queer, Friendship, Discrimination / Racism, Migration / Flight / Exile, Democracy / Human Rights

Available Media

DCP, Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Blu-ray Disc

Original Version

German (de), French (fr), English (en), Turkish (tr)

DCP

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Italian (it), Turkish (tr), Czech (cs), Romanian (ro)

Note on the Format

DCP sind verschlüsselt

Blu-ray Disc

Subtitles

German (partly), German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Italian (it), Turkish (tr), Czech (cs)

DVD

Subtitles

German (partly), German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Italian (it), Turkish (tr), Czech (cs)

Note on the Format

DVD-Auswertungszeit: ab Oktober 2022 und nach Rücksprache mit dem LG

Blu-ray Disc

Subtitles

English (en), Thai (th)

Note on the Format

spezielle BD-Version mit thailändischen und englischen UT im Bild.