Ulkomaalainen/Yabanci by Muammer Özer

Ulkomaalainen (Foreigner)
Muammer Özer, Sweden/Finland 1983, 38 min., OV with English subtitles. Language: Finnish

Yabancı (Foreigner)
Muammer Özer, Sweden/Finland 1979, 88 min., OV with English subtitles. Language: Turkish

Ulkomaalainen/Yabanci was Muammer Özer’s ambitious project about the situation of a Turkish immigrant in Finland. The film was originally shot in Finland during the 1970s when Özer attended film school. He lacked, however, the means for finishing the film until he moved to Sweden in the late 1970s. Ulkomaalainen/Yabanci differs from typical immigrant narratives in the sense that what the protagonist has left behind and returns to in his mind is not an existential home of the past but a distant political setting. This is also reflected in the plethora of found footage that is used by Özer, as well as some rare super-8 footage from demonstrations in Turkey. By comparing the two versions, the longer one in Turkish and the shorter one in Finnish, we explore not only different meanings but also different transnational trajectories.