When his parents came to Frankfurt as guest workers from a small village in northeastern Turkey in 1970, his mother knew from the start: “I work too!” Says actor and producer Adnan Maral at a meeting in Café Mariandl. And you are right in the middle of the German-Turkish recruitment agreement concluded 60 years ago, as a result of which hundreds of thousands of workers came to Germany – a biographical background for Maral too. He became known in the role of Metin Öztürk, an over-correct criminal detective and blended father of a family in the ARD series “Turkish for Beginners”. As such, he was “more German than the Germans”, a role that he embodies even more pointedly as heating installer Toni Freitag. Two years ago the ARD comedy “Servus, Son-in-Law!” With five million viewers a success in terms of ratings, now the sequel “Servus, mother-in-law!” will follow on October 29th at 8:15 pm.
As Toni, Maral mimes an exemplary assimilated Bavarian model who lives with his family in Bergham, Upper Bavaria, is involved in the shooting club and at village festivals. He even took his wife’s surname. “I think it is a deeply human need to want to belong to a society,” says Maral of his Toni. With his Turkish origins, however, he has a hard time as Toni. When, according to the tried and tested comedy law, his daughter Franzi brought home the Turkish-born Berlin Osman as her groom from vacation, Toni was not at all right. According to the motto “Servus, son-in-law!” he tried to separate the two again, which he failed vigorously. In the sequel “Servus, mother-in-law!” New challenges await Toni: Osman’s mother Farah suddenly appears at the door in idyllic Bergham. And causes some unrest.
They are comedies in which prejudices and clichés are played with, but in which they are above all ironically broken. Maral calls them “cross-culture films”, which he prefers to the term “culture clash”, because for him it is not about the competition between nationalities and cultures, but about their intersection and acceptance. Just as he and his wife Franziska, a Swiss woman, also practice it at home: They speak Turkish, German and Swiss German with their three children. “It would never occur to me to deny my Turkish origins or to ask other people to do something like that,” said Maral.
He himself was a “key child” – and there was a substitute grandma in the house
But back to the early seventies. So both parents worked in the factory. The mother in a stamping shop, the father in a construction company. How did you manage it with three children? After all, working women were not a matter of course at the time, and lunch care was not common in schools. “We had a great neighborhood and I have two older brothers who took care of me,” Maral recalls. “Still, I was what was called a key child at the time”. And if he forgot his key, the older brothers weren’t at home, there was a substitute grandma in the house. “Then she made pancakes for me or the other children in the house. I only got to know this food in Germany.”
In the film “Servus, mother-in-law!” It goes without saying that the two wives are employed – regardless of whether they are of Turkish or Bavarian origin. Nevertheless, there are conflicts. Because now that the daughter or son has grown up, new tensions arise. The two women, who have supported their respective husbands’ companies for years, are no longer able to share the burden. Especially when Toni, after his voluntary work as the shooting king, is now also running as a candidate for mayor – allegedly with “full family support”.
But it crumbles. Because his wife Anne does not see that Toni is pursuing his interests while she is supposed to spend more and more time with the joint heating company. Daughter Franzi, on the other hand, finds a new children’s home much more important for Bergham than the new rifle house that her father had promised. Her mother agrees with this view and gets help from Farah, who left her “Pascha” husband Mesut on the spur of the moment – because of the deadlocked roles in marriage and the company, a bridal shop.
It is also about universal issues such as the division of labor between women and men
“Regardless of the two cultures that come into contact with each other here, it is about universal issues between the sexes: who takes the freedom, who gets it, and yes, at whose expense it happens?” Says Maral. He had consulted extensively with his wife, an actress, on the subject, with which the couple who live on the Ammersee also have their experience. Six years ago they founded the production company “Yalla” (which means “Let’s go!” In Turkish and Arabic). “We have two sons and a daughter. And of course it was the case that my wife put back some of the time when the children were younger. There was no other way, because as an actor I was often busy shooting for weeks.” But that it has to stay that way forever is by no means fair and self-evident, says Maral. Because now that the children are between 11 and 16 years old, they have rebalanced their work. “My wife is now working more again, in the company, but also as an actress.” In “Servus, mother-in-law!” she appears as an energetic bank advisor.
As with the first “Servus” film, the script was written by Enno Reese and Mike Viebrock. Maral enjoys working with people he is familiar with. That has something to do with appreciation, he explains. For him as an actor-producer it is important to have a good atmosphere on the set, to create an atmosphere of trust. “I’ve already experienced it differently on the set, when I was only working as an actor. There are directors who work with uncertainty, create fear. I don’t believe in that at all. In any case, a positive mood is necessary to keep people above can grow out. “
That Toni and his Anne, Mesut and Farah get together again after a mayor’s candidacy and a short-term marriage is of course a done deal in the ARD comedy format. But the way there is extremely enjoyable and does not hide the shallows between the sexes. “But it is the same with me: I would like to address serious topics that have a depth. But that has to be done with an ease that is entertaining,” says Maral. Finding a balance is the trick.