A marriage of convenience in Hamburg between two troubled Turks changes both their lives in this fine, gritty, contemporary love story. Director Fatih Akin dives deep into Turkish culture and explores the slippery slope of identity and cultural pride faced by Turks who either move to or are born in Germany. Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Set in Hamburg, this is the love story of two alienated Turkish-Germans, Cahit and Sibel, living between both cultures. Sibel is a beautiful 20-year-old, who, like Cahit, is of Turkish decent but far too into life to behave like a Muslim.
A suicide attempt was the one way Sibel thought she could escape the devout traditions placed on her by her parents. When that failed, her only other hope was to ask Cahit to marry her. He agrees, in hopes to save himself as well, but soon the two find each other sharing but little else.
Cahit and Sibel, both Germans with Turkish roots, marry formally to allow Sibel to break out of the strict rules of her conservative family. They share a flat, but she claims an independant sex life. Cahit takes that very easy in the beginning, but when he envies one of her lovers he kills him and has to go to prison.
Cahit is a German Turk at his late 30’s. He has given up with his life after his beloved wife’s death, and he’s living a miserable life right in the core of cocaine and excessive drinking. One night, he semi-intentionally crashes into a wall, and barely survives.
At the hospital he’s taken to, he meets a girl, Sibel, another German Turk who’s tried to commit suicide. She’s sick and tired of her family’s ultra-traditional issues, and asks Cahit to carry out a white marriage with her out of the blue, so that she can become a married woman and get rid of her family’s revolting pressure.
Cahit is turned off by the idea at first, but then he agrees to take part in this plan. As Sibel tells him straightaway that she’s interested in absolute freedom involving other men and he agrees, they live as roommates with separate private lives for a while. Then things take a different turn, and they’re no longer two indifferent roommates. But their love story won’t be anywhere as simple as any other…
Review
Forty-something bum meets twenty-something Turkish cutie in this multiple award-winning German film by Fatih Akin. Shrill, earthy, gritty, and sometime ridiculous, the film succeeds in mixing the unconventional and the realistic with assurance.
Grungy looking Cahit (Birol ?el) is so far down he doesn?t know which way is up. His job is picking up beer bottles in a rundown bar near his equally rundown cave-like apartment. Since the loss of his wife, his life is over and as a consequence, when he’s not drinking he?s drunk.
Determined to end it all he drives his car head-on into a wall. In the hospital he meets teenager Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), another failed suicide who decides that Cahit is just who she needs to get a green card to live in Germany.
Sibel is rebellious, outspoken, and sexy. Cahit is tough, ugly, and filthy, but Sibel likes him. They marry out of necessity, but in time — of course — they fall in love, much to the chagrin of Sibel?s proud Turkish family.
But can it last? No, of course not. Not only is there an ego clash between the two but Cahit is a hot head and his actions drive Sibel right into the hands of her family who are all to glad to send her back to Turkey. Distraught Cahit hits rock bottom and then in time heads to Turkey to find his bride and make amends. But it may be too late!
Head-On, which won the Golden Bear in Berlin, five German Lolas, and three major European Film Awards, has verve and is well grounded in dealing with the subject of identity and culture clash between two people from different European countries. But it is often difficult to forget that we are watching a movie. And some scenes such as Cahit going on a drunken brawl through a crowded rock concert with blood spewing down both arms are so over-the-top as to propel the film from realistic to weird.
Overall, Head-On is not particularly original but it is often riveting enough to hold one’s attention. — Matt Langdon
Production notes provided by Strand Releasing.
Head-On (Gegen Die Wand)
Starring: Birol Ünel, Sibel Kekilli, Catrin Striebeck, Güven Kirac, Meltem Cumbul, Zarah McKenzie, Francesco Fiannaca
Directed by: Fatih Akin
Screenplay by: Fatih Akin
Release Date: January 21, 2005
MPAA Rating: R for strong graphic sexuality, pervasive language, some brutal violence and drug content.
Studio: Strand Releasing
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $435,395 (3.9%)
Foreign: $10,595,466 (96.1%)
Total: $11,030,861 (Worldwide)