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Lola und Bilidikid

Lola and Billy the Kid
Retrospective 2026
© zero fiction film
A troupe of Turkish drag queens calling themselves “The Migrant Workers” performs to great acclaim at an off-off club in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. One of their number, Lola, considers herself a gay man. He is stepping out with macho man Billy, who is pressing Lola to get a sex-change operation so he can go back to Turkey and open a beach bar with a woman at his side. Lola’s brother Murat, who still lives with their mother, is also gay. Like Lola before him, Murat’s sexuality is not accepted by their older brother Osman. And just like Lola, Murat is mercilessly bullied by a trio of German neo-Nazis. When Lola washes up dead in the River Spree, it is clear to Billy that the three murdered her. He takes Murat under his wing and turns him into an avenging angel – “this is our war, yours and mine”. But is Billy right?
This intense family drama by UCLA graduate Kutluğ Ataman juxtaposes its cross-cultural characters with homophobic attitudes in the Turkish district of Berlin Kreuzberg, as well the bourgeois suburb of Wannsee. By doing so, it takes us into a queer subculture whose members, being both gay and Turkish, are subject to double discrimination.

Trailer/Film Excerpt

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by Kutluğ Ataman (Director, Screenplay)
with Baki Davrak, Gandi Mukli, Erdal Yıldız, Michael Gerber, Murat Yılmaz, Inge Keller, Hasan Ali Mete, Hakan Tandoğan Germany 1999 German, Turkish 95' Colour World premiere of the digitally restored version Rating R 16

With

  • Baki Davrak
  • Gandi Mukli
  • Erdal Yıldız
  • Michael Gerber
  • Murat Yılmaz
  • Inge Keller
  • Hasan Ali Mete
  • Hakan Tandoğan

Crew

Director Kutluğ Ataman
Screenplay Kutluğ Ataman
Cinematography Chris Squires
Editing Ewa J. Lind
Music Arpad Bondy
Sound Design Axel Arft, Wolf-Ingo Römer
Production Design John Di Minico
Costumes Ulla Gothe
Make-Up Axel Zornow
Producer Martin Hagemann
Executive Producer James Schamus
Co-Producers Zeynep Özbatur, Martin Wiebel

Additional information

DCP: zero west filmproduktion, Berlin

Photos