40 m² Deutschland

Set on the deserted North Sea island of Langeness, a lonely woman begins an affair with a stranger; only after he is identified as a political fugitive and deported does she begin to learn about his true identity and his past.

Ironies abound in this extremely sad melodrama about Elif, a Turkish immigrant in Germany who has been sent to prison for murdering her abusive husband. At the time of her imprisonment, she has never ventured outside the Turkish community, and even there has had no friends because of the demands her husband placed on her. She speaks no German. Now, in a place which most people find to be hell on earth, she gains a never-before known taste of freedom among these strangers, who don't even speak her own language. Unfortunately, as a "guest worker," she is horrified to discover that she is soon to be transferred to the horrific prisons of Turkey and will stand trial there for her crime, which will be much less understandingly dealt with in her home country than it would have been in Germany. The false paradise she must say goodbye to is her German prison.

A woman is taking an old elevator up to her new apartment that she has just moved into. The oddly old and ringing phone inside the cabin is freaking her out. Over the line she is told about nightmares that are about to become true.

A woman threatens to jump off a crane with her two young children in order to secure affordable housing.

The film shows images from everyday life in a small village in Central Anatolia: how people there live, work, celebrate festivals, and interact with each other. For comparison, the film shows the lives of Turkish guest workers in Germany: their everyday lives, their problems, their relationships with each other and with Germans.