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Gegen die Wand
Head-On
Duvara Karsi
Germany / Turkey 2004
produced by Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert, Andreas Schreitmüller, Jeanette Würl for Wüste Filmproduktion, Corazón International, arte, NDR
directed by Fatih Akin
starring Birol Ünel, Sibel Kekilli, Catrin Striebeck, Meltem Cumbul, Stefan Gebelhoff, Francesco Fiannaca, Mona Mur, Ralph Misske, Philipp Baltus, Hermann Lause, Akrin Niwiger, Demir Gökgöl, Cem Akin, Aysel Iscan, Tim Seyfi, Andreas Thiel, Misra Tomruk, Senol Ugurlu, Sileyman Kaplan, Hatun Kazci, Güven Kirac, Canan Ata, Nurcan Esmertürk, Monique Akin, Cahit Aygüler, Adam Bousdoukos, Aytun Ede, Marco Greiser, Selim Erdogan, Feridun Koc, Tulga Serim, Tugay Erverdi, Yilmaz Canan, Alma Ouglu Sahin, Orhan Güner, Mehmet Kurtulus, Zarah McKenzie, Reinhold Schulz, Fanfare Ciocarlia
written by Fatih Akin
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Cahit (Birol Ünel) is Turkish only by birth, he has lived in Germany
for decades and more or less adapted his new home's culture - so much so
that he hardly speaks any Turkish anymore. But since the loss of his wife,
he suffers from depressions and is a heavy alcoholic, and one day, under
the influence, he crashes his car into a brick wall head-on. He is sent
to an asylum where he meets Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), who was born in Germany
to Turkish immigrants raised according to Turkish traditions - traditions
she cannot relate to, she wants to live her life and fuck around and ...
and leave her parents. And since this is not all that easy, she has tried
to kill herself, and thus is put in the same asylum as Cahit. In Cahit,
who's about twice her age, she sees her future, because she reasons if she
marries him, she can move out of home without any problems and then do
whatever she wants, fuck whomever she wants. Love doesn't even figure in
this equation. Cahit is hesitant, but when she attempts suicide before his
very eyes, he gives in. At first, the arrangement is great: Against all
odds, the two really like each other, Sibel manages Cahit's household
brilliantly and lights up because of her newfound freedom, and living with
the young girl make Cahit's depressions fade away - and according to his
on-and-off girlfriend Maren (Catrin Striebeck), the experience has even
made him a better lover. Problem is when Sibel and Cahit really fall in
love with each other, and suddenly all their other former lovers become a
problem - until someone (Stefan Gebelhoff) who has once had an affair with
Sibel, insults her in front of Cahit and he gets so enraged that he
accidently kills him ... Cahit is sent to prison for a few years, and
Sibel promises she will wait for him - but she can't stay in Germany since
after it's made public that she had an affair with the man Cahit has
killed, her own family comes after her, wanting to kill her to restore the
family's honour. Sibel escapes to Istambul to live with her cousin (Meltem
Cumbul) - who soon freaks Sibel out though and as before, she descends on
a downward spiral towards self-destruction that involves alcohol, drugs,
rape and violence. Ultimately, she challenges a trio of young men to beat
her up really good, stab her and leave her on the streets to die, but then
she is found by a cabdriver ... Years later, after his prison stint,
Cahit comes to Istambul to reunite with his wife, but he has to learn that
she has started a new life and now has a husband and daughter (Misra
Tomruk). Still, her cousin arranges for the two of them to meet, and they
fall in love all over again and actually have sex for the first time.
Cahit tries to persuade Sibel to leave her husband and together with her
daughter accompany him to the village where he was born - and he almost
succeeds, too, she already packs her suitcase ... when she hears her
husband play with her daughter which breaks her heart - and thus she
breaks Cahit's heart when he the next day leaves Istambul alone ...
The
film starts rather poorly with Birol Ünel doing a Big
Lebowski-parody without being half as good or as funny as Jeff
Bridges, but once the plot gets going and Ünel gets a shave and haircut,
his character as well as that of free-spirited Sibel Kekilli grow on you,
and they make you want to follow the story that's by no means free of
clichés. As a whole, the film could have done with a little more
subtlety, fewer extreme scenes and a bit more humour, and its story as
such is a bit too thin for a whole two hours running time (would have been
perfect for 90 minutes), but it's still a very likeable movie despite all
of that, by no means a masterpiece, but at least likeable.
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