Türkisch für Anfänger (2012)

Raised by a former ’68er therapist whose defining traits were a lack of rules and relentless unconventionality, Lena Schneider has become the opposite of her mother, Doris. She tries to control everything and strictly rejects emotions. To celebrate her high school graduation, a holiday in Thailand is planned. While Doris dreams of partying together, Lena wants to spend the holiday reading and keeping her mother at arm’s length. The Öztürks are also planning a holiday in Thailand and set off for the airport. On the way, the two families encounter each other at a red light. They also end up sitting next to each other on the plane. After a few hours, the plane runs into turbulence and, because of an ash cloud, has to make an emergency water landing in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Nearly all the passengers are rescued from the lifeboats without injury and put up in a hotel. Lena, however, soon wakes up in a life raft after it has run aground on a beach. With her are Cem, his sister Yağmur, and a stuttering Greek man named Costa. Once the group has freed themselves from the life raft, the teenagers realize they are stranded on a deserted island. Using a radio in an abandoned hut, they learn from their parents that the signal from their raft’s tracking beacon is too weak to be located. They are currently waiting for better equipment to arrive from Thailand. When the group tries to take the beacon up the island’s mountain to increase its range, they discover that the backpack containing it has been swept out to sea. As Lena tries to retrieve the backpack, she steps on a sea urchin and has a severe allergic reaction. Hoping to find an antidote, Cem takes Lena to a native village where they had earlier witnessed a sacrificial ritual. There, Cem discovers that the natives speak fluent German and that the woman from the supposed ritual is still alive. She is Uschi, a researcher who came to the island to study the life of a cannibal tribe. She gives Lena an antidote and lets Cem use her phone to call his parents. Meanwhile, Metin and Doris grow closer. After spending time together on the beach, they arrange to visit a disco boat. There, Doris gets drunk with the surf instructor, Ivan, and discovers in his hut that he is a male escort who will sleep with her only for money. Doris and Metin spend the next day together and eventually sleep with each other. On the island, the teenagers smoke a peace pipe with the natives. Lena thinks Cem wants to sleep with her and takes several drags of the drug. But Cem only shows her a hip-hop song he has made, which she is unimpressed by. They argue again about Cem’s maturity. Then the peace pipe takes effect, and Lena tells Cem to sleep with her. He carries her to the hut and, on the way to the bed, bumps into Lena’s camcorder, which starts recording. Cem gets into bed beside Lena. In the morning, Yağmur is sitting by the bed and teasing them about what she assumes they got up to. When Costa appears at the hut after the celebration with the natives, he brings up with Cem the bet he won about having sex with Lena, and Lena overhears their conversation. Later, Yağmur helps Costa clean up after an accident, and they kiss. They discover that Costa does not stutter when he touches her hand. At the waterfall, a disappointed Lena confronts Cem about the bet. She slips in the water, is swept away by the current, and ends up in a pool. As Cem is about to apologize because he has secretly fallen in love with her, Doris appears in the jungle and embraces her daughter. At the resort, Doris asks Lena about a dinner planned for that evening with Metin and his family. Doris is in love with the Turk and wants to see him again and get to know him better. Lena, however, wants nothing more to do with Cem and decides to drive the family away. She looks up online the Mafia clan that led to the Öztürks being placed in the witness protection program, trashes Metin’s hotel room, and sprays the words “We found you” on the wall. Metin panics and flees with his children. Lena is confident she has won. But that evening, when she sees her mother sadly singing karaoke and pining for Metin, she watches her island recordings and discovers the video from the night when she thought she had slept with Cem. It turns out Cem did not take advantage of the situation; he had only watched Lena while she slept. Lena then confesses everything to her mother, and the two take a taxi to the airport, where the Öztürks are just about to assume their new identities and fly to Oslo. The Schneiders manage to get on board in time, and Lena confesses to Metin what she has done. As a result, Doris and Metin, and Lena and Cem, reunite. The film ends with all three couples spending time together on the beach.