Konu:

For years the men of southeastern Turkey have gone to Germany for work. Some of them are away for a long time. Others try hard to have their wives and children join them. It takes more than money.

There is a new obstacle for women to rejoin their husbands. German legislation in 2008 obliges wives to have "basic German competence" before they can get permission to stay in Germany.

Across the region many engaged and married women fill the classrooms of their village school taking a German course. Once they earn their certificate they have one final test: they must travel to the big city to take a language exam in the German Consulate.

The language courses are conducted by a German-speaking Turkish teacher. The courses attract a wide range of women. Each faces challenges.

Some, like Emine, are illiterate - not only in German, but in their native language. Others, like Zehra, don't even speak Turkish. All she knows is her own language, Kurdish. Women like Sevim are tied to their homes. She has small children who cannot be left alone while she makes the journey of several hours to attend the class. Others, like Fidan, want desperately to attend the course but are not allowed to leave the house on their own. Some, like Esma, struggle to find enough money to attend the course. Others, Like Saide, do not have the courage or the hope or the confidence to complete the course.

Women who sit and listen to the lesson like little girls are of different ages and faces, but they have same problems. As "silent" women who are oppressed in a very traditional society, they start to learn "a new language" despite all the obstacles. The classroom also turns into a liberating space for the women, where they are at least briefly free from many of the strictures of home and family.

No one knows what doors this strange and funny language they are learning open for them, but the story of each women echoes in the walls of the classroom with a sentence they have never heard and said: I love you - Ich liebe dich...