Critic Reviews

• Wally Hammond, Time Out

  Impressive directorial skills, if a trite plotline, are on offer in Turkish-German writer-director Özgür Yildirim's occasionally violent debut feature.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  This is frankly pretty cliched stuff.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  It's hard to take your eyes off Moschitto's bulldog-like antihero - with his dangerous lips and furtive power plays, he makes Vincent Cassel in Mesrine look like Dale Winton's camper twin.

• Cosmo Landesman, Times [UK]

  Despite the fresh setting and fine performances, Yildirim's screenplay is just too familiar to really admire. Instead of violent and ruthless Italians, we get violent and ruthless Turks.

• Philip French, Observer [UK]

  Chiko's German boss, Moritz Bleibtreu confirms his reputation as one of Europe's most compelling younger film actors.

• Tim Evans, Sky Movies

  Never does the plot deviate from its almost pre-ordained course and as we witness the rise and fall of Chiko not once is there a surprise in store to ramp up the interest.

• Allan Hunter, Daily Express

  The film has little new to offer but Ozgür Yildirim directs with assurance.

• Rich Cline, This is London

  Something more than just a thriller - a film as accurate and hard-nosed as it needs to be.

• Tom Dawson, Total Film

  The feature debut of writer/director Özgür Yildirim, Chiko may offer a familiar account of ambition, excess and revenge in the narcotics biz, but it's executed with assurance and acted with force.

• Mark Ramshaw, Filmstar Magazine

  The final scenes simply lack the necessary weight to turn Chiko into something profound, affecting, or entirely memorable.

• , Empire Magazine

  Starts in an impressive, genre-subverting manner but then reverts to type a little towards the end.

• Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

  The handsomely grungy photography, the moments of grislier-than-usual violence and the producing participation of film-maker Fatih Akin fail to rescue this moody thug epic from being a cross-Channel cousin to the UK's mod gangster genre.

• Anthony Quinn, Independent

  Too much of its urban grit seems in thrall to American precedents.

• Anton Bitel, Film4

  In Özgür Yildirim's vibrant thriller, the exigencies of genre clash with the realities of Germany's urban multiculturalism - but a bland central performance, and a paucity of surprises, hinder its rise to the top of the drug-movie hierarchy.

• Joseph Proimakis, Movies for the Masses

  Pathiasmeno kai filotimo skinothetiko ntempoyto, poy pashei ap' oles tis astheneies ton ntempoyton: filodoksies poy den kalyptontai ap' tis senariakes baseis kai tis skinothetikes ikanotites toy dimioyrgoy

• Boyd van Hoeij, european-films.net

  A gentle character sketch gradually makes way for a high-energy tale of loyalty and betrayal that is perhaps rife with clichés but works because Yildirim has established his characters properly.

Read all 16 critic reviews