Maybe the award has elements of guilt and affirmative action behind it. After all, the Germans have exploited Turkish "guestworkers" for decades, and the Turkish filmmaker deserved encouragement. Also, there is no other film about this group of people with this kind of energy and strength, and whatever it's strengths or weaknesses, in its overblown way, the movie is sincere. Did I say that? I don't remember. What I did say was "what it has is life," and like Ae Fond Kiss, it may have more life, because of rather than in spite of its crudeness, than the wonderfully polished and witty (and in every way superior) My Beautiful Laundrette.