Meet the Özdags

The experience of watching "The Özdags" can be summed up with the description of just one scene: 34-year-old Nebil sings with careless abandon to the German hits of the day. This, in turn, brings huge embarrassment to his brother Uzay who hopes that nobody is watching his sibling belt out bad German pop. However, many will see it: the rest of the family as well as a whole nation.

The stars of the new family series, Mom and Dad Özdag, their seven children and four grandchildren, took a while to get used to the experience of being filmed.

"This was completely new territory and at the beginning we were all very nervous," says Nebil. However, he, for one, has got used to it. His sister Hülya agrees with him and credits the professional film team with putting the family at ease. This, she believes, has made shooting the show very easy.

An extraordinarily ordinary family

Author and director Ute Diehl wanted to make a show about an ordinary family which was extraordinary. And when she was approached to portray a Turkish family in the role, she was inspired immediately.

"I still have the feeling that this is a very amusing world which we have not seen in its entirety yet," says Diehl. "Although the Özdags have opened this world up to me in a way I would never have dared to hope."

Diehl has followed the life of the mainly Turkish family for one and a half years and has caught both private moments at home on camera as well as the experiences of everyday working life in the family firm, a Turkish confectionary. During this time, she has seen not only the cheerful and loving side of the family, but also the conflicts.

Hasan Özdag is typical of those Turks who came to Germany 30 years ago to build a new life. He worked hard and watched his children grow up in their adopted country, graduating from their professional training to join him working in the family company.

Tradition and modernity clash on screen

But as a father with traditional values, he is not always happy with the way his children live. Traditional divisions of labor along gender lines don't exist in Germany as much as they do in Turkey. Thus, Hasan is seen at one point in the show reacting angrily when his son-in-law does the vacuuming instead of repairing a broken bed.

Whatever happens in the Özdag family, the television viewers are always present. The youngest daughter, 26-year-old Hülya, sees the show as a good way to correct mistaken stereotypes about Turks in Germany. The series provides a good opportunity to show people that many families live quite differently from them but not the way most think they do.