Cem Kaya’s Love, Deutschmarks, and Death is both a political and poetic intervention against the common understanding of the history of labor migration from Turkey to Germany. Choosing music as its theme, this essayistic documentary elaborately narrates the experience of migration in its full extent: it begins with the recruitment agreement of 1961 and takes its audience to the present tense. Extensive research with archival material resulted in a rich body of found footage; combined with interviews, the result is a palimpsest of memories in which different layers of historical experience shine through.