Arda never knew his father. The only thing connecting him to him is a small black mark under his left eye—his "father mark." Arda is barely in his early twenties, lying in intensive care with organ failure, and time is running out. Time he has wasted with his friends and time that the German authorities have taken from him. His mother and sister haven't spoken a word to each other in ten years. Now they meet daily in the hospital, and Arda is literally caught in the middle. In the time he has left, he writes a letter to his father, Metin. He wants him to know everything about the life of the broken family in Germany that he left behind to return to Turkey. He wants him to no longer be unable to know who Arda was. In his acclaimed debut novel, Necati Öziri weaves a family saga in which mother, daughter, and son try to overcome loss and—even without passports—find their own place in Germany. Bassam Ghazi, together with people from Cologne, creates a fast-paced evening about farewell, longing, migration and family.

Bahar Gökten

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Apr 24, 2026

Father's mark · Bühnen Köln

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