Salami Aleikum (2009)

The sensitive Mohsen Taheri likes nothing better than spending his time knitting, and he cannot stand the sight of blood. That is why he is repulsed by his father’s work as a butcher. His father is from Iran and has run a butcher’s shop in Cologne for many years. When an official ban on his profession forces Mohsen to take over the shop, a Polish trader offers to supply him with meat-rich sheep from Poland, already slaughtered and ready to sell in his butcher’s shop. Mohsen gives the shady trader all his savings and sets off for Poland in his father’s old delivery van, but the vehicle breaks down near a village in eastern Germany. He gets help from the local car mechanic, and immediately falls in love with her. Ana, a sturdy mechanic who is considerably taller than Mohsen, was once a successful shot-putter in East Germany. Her career came to an abrupt end after reunification, when her doping violations (which had been ordered) became public. Her great love, her coach, left her for West Germany, so Ana is now extremely distrustful of men, especially since she considers herself unattractive. Mohsen therefore has a hard time winning her trust. The villagers also treat him with suspicion and prejudice, until a misunderstanding—caused above all by Ana’s father, the village innkeeper—gives rise to the hopeful suspicion that the young, clever Iranian is a wealthy investor who wants to bring the dilapidated textile factory back to life and restore jobs to the village. For Ana’s sake, Mohsen does not dispel the mistaken impression just yet. From then on, Persian food is served at the village inn to ingratiate themselves with their guest. Once the van has been repaired, Ana goes with Mohsen to Poland. There it becomes clear that he has been conned: he gets only a few scrawny sheep. Among them is a pregnant ewe, which gives birth to a lamb while they are illegally crossing the border because they lack import papers. The lamb turns out at the end to be the (childlike) narrator who has accompanied the entire film in voice-over. Shortly afterward, Mohsen’s parents arrive in the village idyll, having come out of concern for their son’s welfare. Mohsen does everything he can to stop his unsuspecting father from letting the truth slip. In the meantime, his father has become friends with Ana’s father over their shared fondness for army uniforms and schnapps. When Mohsen proposes to Ana, the young man clears up the whole misunderstanding in front of everyone at the inn and admits that he had seen through it some time ago. Ana then punches him on the chin and turns away, disappointed. It takes a while for all the protagonists to come together again. This includes Ana, who goes to find Mohsen in Poland, where he has retreated, also disappointed by Ana’s stubbornness. Realizing that the Iranian food at the village inn is a bestseller, they turn part of the old factory into a successful Iranian-German cultural center that attracts a large following. The film is interspersed with short sequences in the style of typical Iranian music videos, whose kitsch—intended to strike German cinema audiences as comical—is one element of the comedy. The film’s protagonists appear in them. Filming locations include Berlin and Brandenburg: Nauen, Kleinmachnow, Dahlewitz, Golzow, Velten, Rüdersdorf, and Nudow.