Neither here nor there

In this book, the half-Turkish, half-Dutch photographer Ahmet Polat goes to Turkey in search of his roots. He reconstructs the journey his father undertook as a truck driver, attracted to the Netherlands in the 1970s in search of a better future.

Polat realizes how uncommon the situation was for his parents in the 1970s, who met in the only place of entertainment in a tiny village in the south of the Netherlands. He had seen her previously standing on a dike, whre his truck had broken down earlier that day. In the nightclub, he approaches her in his broken German and then feel the spark between them.

Not long afterwards, Diana's parents are sitting in an airplane for the first time in their lives, heading for Turkey, anxiously wondering what's in store for them. Given the situation, it is quite surprising that they see no reason for concern, and the language isn't a problem either. Without being able to exchange a word, there is an immediate mutual understanding: two hardworking families, laborers who, despite the differences in age, religion, and origin, only want the best for their children. Ahmet Polat now understands that all those years in which he had sought acceptance in life, he had been focusing on the wrong people. In 1976, before he had even been born, both his grandfathers had taken care of that for him already.

...Neither here nor there... places the contemporary feelings and discussions concerning labor migration, cultural differences, minorities and identity in an original and refreshing light.