Screened
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Head-On" (Gegan die Wand) is an intense, romantic, funny-sad, sometimes harrowing, always moving portrait of cultural estrangement and the power of love. The immediate subject of Fatih Akin's fourth feature as a writer and director is German residents of Turkish extraction. But his film achieves a universality that makes the situation easily understood by audiences anywhere. It could be Algerians in France or Chinese in America, and this would be the same story. The film, which won the Berlin festival's Golden Bear, deserves wide exposure on the festival circuit followed by key art house dates.
Akin has drawn strong performances from his entire cast, especially his main actors, veteran Birol Unel and newcomer Sibel Kekilli. They play two thoroughly Westernized Turks living in Hamburg who can't come to terms with the East/West divide in their souls. Unel's Cahit is an anti-social alcoholic, trying unsuccessfully to drown the pain of his wife's death. Kekilli's Sibel is a 20-year-old free spirit desperate to escape her strict Muslim family, including an overprotective brother. They meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide.
Sibel begs Cahit for a marriage of convenience that will allow her to leave her family's home. Eventually, he agrees. For a while, things go great: She keeps the place tidy and fixes better meals than he is used to. He gets drunk every night, usually winding up in a stupor, while she goes to bed with as many guys as she pleases.
The problem is that the two gradually fall in love. Then Cahit kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage. He winds up in the pen, while she, promising to wait for him, flees her family to Istanbul. There she debases herself in an orgy of self-destruction.
The film feels like a comedy for a while, but by smoothly introducing tragic elements, Akin deepens our understanding of the world of second-generation Turkish immigrants and allows his characters, both unrepentant hedonists, to express their individuality without concern for genre conventions. Predictability is shattered as each character is forced to confront his dark side and find the means to make peace with himself.
"Head-On" is a compelling movie in spite of -- or is it actually because of? -- the self-destructive nature of its two protagonists. They fight so hard for every bit of happiness they earn, yet culture and circumstances fight back even harder.
All of which makes the film sound like a complete downer. Actually, some of it is quite funny. Cahit pointing out to Sibel that she failed to slash her wrists in a manner that would ensure her demise is bleakly funny. But other scenes are cheerfully funny, like Cahit's encounter with a Turkish cabbie in Istanbul where they discover they are both "Germans".
Technical credits are fine, including Rainer Klausmann's sharp camerawork and musical interludes featuring songs of lost or unrequited love played by a six-piece band against an Istanbul skyline.
Gegan die Wand
Wueste in association with Corazon International, NDR/Arte
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Producers: Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Production designer: Tamo Kunz
Music consultant: Klaus Maeck
Co-producer: Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel, Mehmet Kurtulus
Costume designer: Katrin Aschendorf
Editor: Andrew Bird
Cast:
Cahit: Birol Unel
Sibel: Sibel Kekilli
Maren: Catrin Striebeck
Seref: Guven Kirac
Selma: Meltem Cumbul
Yimaz Guner: Cem Akin
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Head-On" (Gegan die Wand) is an intense, romantic, funny-sad, sometimes harrowing, always moving portrait of cultural estrangement and the power of love. The immediate subject of Fatih Akin's fourth feature as a writer and director is German residents of Turkish extraction. But his film achieves a universality that makes the situation easily understood by audiences anywhere. It could be Algerians in France or Chinese in America, and this would be the same story. The film, which won the Berlin festival's Golden Bear, deserves wide exposure on the festival circuit followed by key art house dates.
Akin has drawn strong performances from his entire cast, especially his main actors, veteran Birol Unel and newcomer Sibel Kekilli. They play two thoroughly Westernized Turks living in Hamburg who can't come to terms with the East/West divide in their souls. Unel's Cahit is an anti-social alcoholic, trying unsuccessfully to drown the pain of his wife's death. Kekilli's Sibel is a 20-year-old free spirit desperate to escape her strict Muslim family, including an overprotective brother. They meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide.
Sibel begs Cahit for a marriage of convenience that will allow her to leave her family's home. Eventually, he agrees. For a while, things go great: She keeps the place tidy and fixes better meals than he is used to. He gets drunk every night, usually winding up in a stupor, while she goes to bed with as many guys as she pleases.
The problem is that the two gradually fall in love. Then Cahit kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage. He winds up in the pen, while she, promising to wait for him, flees her family to Istanbul. There she debases herself in an orgy of self-destruction.
The film feels like a comedy for a while, but by smoothly introducing tragic elements, Akin deepens our understanding of the world of second-generation Turkish immigrants and allows his characters, both unrepentant hedonists, to express their individuality without concern for genre conventions. Predictability is shattered as each character is forced to confront his dark side and find the means to make peace with himself.
"Head-On" is a compelling movie in spite of -- or is it actually because of? -- the self-destructive nature of its two protagonists. They fight so hard for every bit of happiness they earn, yet culture and circumstances fight back even harder.
All of which makes the film sound like a complete downer. Actually, some of it is quite funny. Cahit pointing out to Sibel that she failed to slash her wrists in a manner that would ensure her demise is bleakly funny. But other scenes are cheerfully funny, like Cahit's encounter with a Turkish cabbie in Istanbul where they discover they are both "Germans".
Technical credits are fine, including Rainer Klausmann's sharp camerawork and musical interludes featuring songs of lost or unrequited love played by a six-piece band against an Istanbul skyline.
Gegan die Wand
Wueste in association with Corazon International, NDR/Arte
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Producers: Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Production designer: Tamo Kunz
Music consultant: Klaus Maeck
Co-producer: Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel, Mehmet Kurtulus
Costume designer: Katrin Aschendorf
Editor: Andrew Bird
Cast:
Cahit: Birol Unel
Sibel: Sibel Kekilli
Maren: Catrin Striebeck
Seref: Guven Kirac
Selma: Meltem Cumbul
Yimaz Guner: Cem Akin
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screened
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Head-On" (Gegan die Wand) is an intense, romantic, funny-sad, sometimes harrowing, always moving portrait of cultural estrangement and the power of love. The immediate subject of Fatih Akin's fourth feature as a writer and director is German residents of Turkish extraction. But his film achieves a universality that makes the situation easily understood by audiences anywhere. It could be Algerians in France or Chinese in America, and this would be the same story. The film, which won the Berlin festival's Golden Bear, deserves wide exposure on the festival circuit followed by key art house dates.
Akin has drawn strong performances from his entire cast, especially his main actors, veteran Birol Unel and newcomer Sibel Kekilli. They play two thoroughly Westernized Turks living in Hamburg who can't come to terms with the East/West divide in their souls. Unel's Cahit is an anti-social alcoholic, trying unsuccessfully to drown the pain of his wife's death. Kekilli's Sibel is a 20-year-old free spirit desperate to escape her strict Muslim family, including an overprotective brother. They meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide.
Sibel begs Cahit for a marriage of convenience that will allow her to leave her family's home. Eventually, he agrees. For a while, things go great: She keeps the place tidy and fixes better meals than he is used to. He gets drunk every night, usually winding up in a stupor, while she goes to bed with as many guys as she pleases.
The problem is that the two gradually fall in love. Then Cahit kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage. He winds up in the pen, while she, promising to wait for him, flees her family to Istanbul. There she debases herself in an orgy of self-destruction.
The film feels like a comedy for a while, but by smoothly introducing tragic elements, Akin deepens our understanding of the world of second-generation Turkish immigrants and allows his characters, both unrepentant hedonists, to express their individuality without concern for genre conventions. Predictability is shattered as each character is forced to confront his dark side and find the means to make peace with himself.
"Head-On" is a compelling movie in spite of -- or is it actually because of? -- the self-destructive nature of its two protagonists. They fight so hard for every bit of happiness they earn, yet culture and circumstances fight back even harder.
All of which makes the film sound like a complete downer. Actually, some of it is quite funny. Cahit pointing out to Sibel that she failed to slash her wrists in a manner that would ensure her demise is bleakly funny. But other scenes are cheerfully funny, like Cahit's encounter with a Turkish cabbie in Istanbul where they discover they are both "Germans".
Technical credits are fine, including Rainer Klausmann's sharp camerawork and musical interludes featuring songs of lost or unrequited love played by a six-piece band against an Istanbul skyline.
Gegan die Wand
Wueste in association with Corazon International, NDR/Arte
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Producers: Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Production designer: Tamo Kunz
Music consultant: Klaus Maeck
Co-producer: Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel, Mehmet Kurtulus
Costume designer: Katrin Aschendorf
Editor: Andrew Bird
Cast:
Cahit: Birol Unel
Sibel: Sibel Kekilli
Maren: Catrin Striebeck
Seref: Guven Kirac
Selma: Meltem Cumbul
Yimaz Guner: Cem Akin
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Head-On" (Gegan die Wand) is an intense, romantic, funny-sad, sometimes harrowing, always moving portrait of cultural estrangement and the power of love. The immediate subject of Fatih Akin's fourth feature as a writer and director is German residents of Turkish extraction. But his film achieves a universality that makes the situation easily understood by audiences anywhere. It could be Algerians in France or Chinese in America, and this would be the same story. The film, which won the Berlin festival's Golden Bear, deserves wide exposure on the festival circuit followed by key art house dates.
Akin has drawn strong performances from his entire cast, especially his main actors, veteran Birol Unel and newcomer Sibel Kekilli. They play two thoroughly Westernized Turks living in Hamburg who can't come to terms with the East/West divide in their souls. Unel's Cahit is an anti-social alcoholic, trying unsuccessfully to drown the pain of his wife's death. Kekilli's Sibel is a 20-year-old free spirit desperate to escape her strict Muslim family, including an overprotective brother. They meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide.
Sibel begs Cahit for a marriage of convenience that will allow her to leave her family's home. Eventually, he agrees. For a while, things go great: She keeps the place tidy and fixes better meals than he is used to. He gets drunk every night, usually winding up in a stupor, while she goes to bed with as many guys as she pleases.
The problem is that the two gradually fall in love. Then Cahit kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage. He winds up in the pen, while she, promising to wait for him, flees her family to Istanbul. There she debases herself in an orgy of self-destruction.
The film feels like a comedy for a while, but by smoothly introducing tragic elements, Akin deepens our understanding of the world of second-generation Turkish immigrants and allows his characters, both unrepentant hedonists, to express their individuality without concern for genre conventions. Predictability is shattered as each character is forced to confront his dark side and find the means to make peace with himself.
"Head-On" is a compelling movie in spite of -- or is it actually because of? -- the self-destructive nature of its two protagonists. They fight so hard for every bit of happiness they earn, yet culture and circumstances fight back even harder.
All of which makes the film sound like a complete downer. Actually, some of it is quite funny. Cahit pointing out to Sibel that she failed to slash her wrists in a manner that would ensure her demise is bleakly funny. But other scenes are cheerfully funny, like Cahit's encounter with a Turkish cabbie in Istanbul where they discover they are both "Germans".
Technical credits are fine, including Rainer Klausmann's sharp camerawork and musical interludes featuring songs of lost or unrequited love played by a six-piece band against an Istanbul skyline.
Gegan die Wand
Wueste in association with Corazon International, NDR/Arte
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Producers: Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Production designer: Tamo Kunz
Music consultant: Klaus Maeck
Co-producer: Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel, Mehmet Kurtulus
Costume designer: Katrin Aschendorf
Editor: Andrew Bird
Cast:
Cahit: Birol Unel
Sibel: Sibel Kekilli
Maren: Catrin Striebeck
Seref: Guven Kirac
Selma: Meltem Cumbul
Yimaz Guner: Cem Akin
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/19/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.