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Plot:
40-year-old Cahit is brought to German psychiatric clinic after attempting suicide and sets out to start a new life, even as he longs for drugs and alcohol to numb his pain. Sibel is young, pretty and...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:August 31, 2008
Dark, gloomy, harsh - the movie gives you all the reasons to not watch it on a depressive evening. But it is also very gripping with its presentation of melancholic lives, its exploration of what is convinient relationships.
Both Cahit and Sibel are Turkish emigrants living in Germany. Both of them are unhappy, disoriented and sick of their lives, on which they have given up. They meet in a clinic after making failed suicide attempts, and end up in a convenient marriage on Sibel's crazy insistence as she desperately seeks to move away from the dominance of her family and have an independent 'sexual life' as she puts it.
Both live as roommates, and slowly, even through their random and disjointed lives, a semblance of attachment begins to form between them, until they begin to fall in love. But just then a fit of anger lands Cahit in the prison, and Sibel disowned by her family. She moves to Turkey, and Cahit hangs on in the prison with only the thought of Sibel keeping him alive.
Sibel's disorientation in Turkey is almost complete, and it is such a vivid description of how she is more comfortable in the foreign land than in her own country. Even Cahit, when he finally lands in his country, seems to be so out of place and puzzled in being there. There is a scene when he tries to speak to Sibel's cousin in halted English to explain himself, because neither his German and Turkish appear adequate enough for expressing his emotions. That single scene says a lot about the emigrant's confusion.
What I liked about the movie is that even with many dramatic turns, it is a very non-dramatic film. The listlessness and the slow resurrection of both people is subtle and very natural. They are reticent people, never truly giving in to emotion, but more susceptible to anger and depression. There are some very good scenes - Cahit's Head-on in the beginning of movie being one, the English dialogue another. The last scene too, which reminded me of the last scene of Antonioni's L'eclisse in a way - though of course the latter was far more powerful and poetic. The movie is tied together with powerful acting and little dialogue. I found myself both disgusted and sympathizing with the two people who seem to have come unhinged. -
MCT:August 15, 2008
to act, never think. let your emotions & feelings overcome your mind and suffer the consequences. raw, powerful, extraordinary are dead-on adverbs to describe Head-on movie.
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MCT:July 1, 2008
the movie catches a messed up man from behind and teaches him a lot about the life and love..masterwork from fatih ak?n..a milestone for turkish movie
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MCT:June 15, 2008This movie is interesting to me personally in many ways. However, the story itself is not fully convincing. Also it is a bit too long though I didn't get bored. Could have been better.
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Head On (Gegen die Wand), winner of the top prize "Golden Bear" at the 2004 Berlin Festival, is occasionally interrupted by a panoramic shot of a singer performing in front of a small Turkish orchestra on the banks of the Bosphorus across from Istanbul. It's a simple, at first incomprehensible, little device that provides punctuation and clarity amid the chaos and melodrama that otherwise dominate this story of a Turkish man in his forties and a twenty-year-old Turkish woman who meet in a psychiatric facility in Germany when both have attempted suicide -- he by crashing his car into a wall ("head on"), she by slitting her wrists. Cahit Tomruk (the sublimely attitudinizing Birol Ünel) is a purposeless rock 'n' roll loving boozer with a dead-end job collecting bottles at a club, and Sibel Güner (the wiry, intense Sibel Kikulli) is a young woman with conservative Turkish parents who wants to escape family pressures.
Both are total drama queens and both are German-born Turks. Cahit is more assimilated; his Turkish isn't even good. Sibel figures if he'll agree to marry her that'll get her away from her family. This is the irony of their situation: she must capitulate to the conventions of their culture in order to gain some freedom from it, and he must capitulate to society in order to get some sense of purpose. So they do get married -- he somehow passes muster with the stuffy family, baulking all the way -- and they eventually even fall in love. Her joie de vivre is exactly what he needs, and she's essentially just as wild in her way as he is in his -- but his nihilism and violence continue unabated and so does her promiscuity, and his brutal attack on one of her one night stands leads to jail and scandal, which in turn forces her to go to Istanbul. While he's incarcerated she writes him sustaining letters from Turkey -- their relationship, like the staid orchestra on the Bosphorus, is a stable element amid the surrounding chaos -- and after jail he goes to Turkey to find her.
To say this turbulent, brightly colored, lurid story is a "realistic picture of Turks in Germany" would be a total distortion of the truth. But somehow the situation of Cahit and Sibel reflects the unstable moods this half assimilated, half alien population experiences, and however melodramatic and unresolved the saga is, the two main characters are very well realized. The actors are strong, especially Birol Ünel, whose charismatic brooding and ravaged good looks make him irresistibly watchable. Both feel real to us -- he sardonic and gloomy, she dangerously spirited and full of life-- despite her dramatic suicide attempts, of which there's more than one. The story, as much as the images through which it's told, is both dark and vibrant.
We need the Brechtian, Greek-chorus device of those orchestral interludes on the Bosphorus, though: without an occasional break the drama and darkness would be too much. We also need to go with the flow of this movie, and not expect it to be more polished or more organized, or even better looking, than it is. It looks unlike most films we're seeing now, but that doesn't mean the cinematographer hasn't done the best possible job. What it has is life, tumultuous with incident, strong personalities, and a milieu we've not seen before. There's also a loud, authentic-feeling rock-pop soundtrack and a cunning contrast between Cahit's punk-rock sensibility and Sibel's love of good grooming and dance. Arguably the movie is too long, but that length gives it the feel of a saga, which it must have, because that's what it is, the confused, tawdry epic of a generation. Like all first films by a whole subculture, it has a lot to talk about. When Sibel and Cahit discover they still love each other, after everything, it's the Turkish Germans discovering that they have self-worth. The last scenes are open-ended: this generation's future is anybody's guess. -
MCT:March 3, 2008
A movie about strict Muslim values and love. Cahit and Sibel first marry for convenience, but eventually start to care for each other which is severely tested when Cahit is sent to jail.
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MCT:February 28, 2008This looks absolutley horrible. The trailer is set to some bad 80s music that made me want to pull out my hair. It may be wonderful but the trailer wasn't convincing to me.
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MCT:February 7, 2008
The kind of story that makes you think about the concept of love. It doesn't have the pretension of knowing what it is like so many stories "-Do you love each other? -You wouldn't understand that. I don't even understand it." Cahit is on a path to self-destruction after losing his wife when he meets Sibel who first uses him to be freed from the clutches of her conservative family. Cahit falls in love with Sibel because he doesn't possess her, she's young and beautiful and he's only her key to freedom, freedom he doesn't appreciate anymore. Sibel falls in love because she didn't marry a "proper" man who would've kept her restrained like her family did. What the story does is show that love is ephemeral. Once he can have her and he isn't jealous anymore it all seems so in vain, like there's no point to pursue it.
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MCT:February 7, 2008ne bileyim ya sevmiyorum fatih akin filmlerini. önyargili yaklasmiyorum. bu tip filmleri sevmiyorum sadece.
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MCT:January 14, 2008
Great acting and a very engaging story about a young turkish suicidal woman who marries a suicidal and much older man to get free from the cultural conventions her family puts upon her. Extremely strong and extrovert scenes, beautiful music and great dialogue - all in all a magnificent job from the director Fatih Akin even though it´s not quite at the same level of his latest The Edge of Heaven.
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MCT:October 26, 2007this is a great filmaker piece! emotionally strong, raw and sentisive at the same time. and even if akin doesn't wank to hear this: it is a relevant piece for the german-turkish culture!
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MCT:September 10, 2007Saw his recent one, The Edge of Heaven, and it was a beautiful film... very curious to see this one now.
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MCT:August 10, 2007
A great story showing how we can fall in love with time. A story that also tells us how love can make us survive to the pitiful world we live in. Through self-destruction, rapes, and drugs, we see both lovers getting destroyed while they are separated from their love. Love is a powerful thing after all...
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MCT:March 30, 2007
Part of my post-war German film course. This is a tragic and totally raw film about Sibel, a young Turkish woman living in Germany and the man, Cahit, she chooses to "pretend marry" in order to appease her devoutly Turkish family so she can freely live her desired life of abundant sexuality (with many men) and partying. It becomes a love story when the two, inevitably, fall in love. I loved pretty much everything about this film. I appreciated the richness of the characters. The soundtrack was awesome and enhanced the film a lot. The cinematography and editing were totally neat and brilliantly done; the technique was used, for example, of hearing the first couple seconds of each scene before it actually appears, and this gave the film a continuous, unrippled flow despite the vivacity of the shots. The writing was swell, and the acting was great - major kudos to Sibel Kekilli (Sibel) and Birol Ünel (Cahit), their performances were both stellar. Birol Ünel has to be one of the coolest motherfuckers on the planet, as well.
The film comes off as totally authentic, and deals with a lot of serious issues, such as suicide, alcholism/drug addiction, the role of family, fidelity. And all of this was dealt with more than adequately by Fatih Akin's intelligent filmmaking, making great use of parallelism and symbolism and other thematic techniques that really presents us with something to think about. Its just totally realistic, and sensual, and funny, and at times, beautiful. This is a wonderful film, and if you get the chance - see it! -
MCT:February 22, 2007
Humerous and touching romantic drama about a couple who meet after attempting to commit suicide. The direction is smart and the performances are witty, however it has to be said that the cliched ending is a little disappointing.
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MCT:December 2, 2006
The DVD cover says it best: "Raw, powerful, extraordinary" actually hits the nail on the head. This is most likely one of the best German films ever made - and a very tough ride for the audience. The sheer realism of it all makes this movie hard to forget. Perfect little drama with a marvelously talented cast. If only German cinema would always be this gripping and intense.
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MCT:December 1, 2006
Sibel, a turkish girl living in Germany marries Cahit to get rid of the controling bonds her family has on her. This wouldn't be a German drama film if what starts out rather amusing wouldn't soon go down the drain, including manslaughter, rape and drugs. Thankfully, the movie is not without hope in all its sadness and is very well acted.
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MCT:September 17, 2006
Read the synopsis and recorded it because it sounded interesting. When I watched it I was blown away.
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MCT:July 29, 2006
Head-on, apply directly to your DVD player.
Head-on, apply directly to your DVD player.
Head-on, apply directly to your DVD player.
In hindsight, the title has become a little unfortunate,especially considering that a more direct translation of "Gegen die Wand"--"Against the Wall"--suits the movie a lot better, but that's really the biggest criticism I can find.
It's hard to explain why I like this movie so much, but I do. -
MCT:July 18, 2006
This movie is on the top of my list ever since I first saw it in 2004. I saw it twice in the movie theater and saw it three times more on video. This movie deals with two troubled young German turks, constantly questioning their true identity and struggling to feel validated in both worlds - Germany and Turkey.
At first, madly in love, their love for each other started like storm and they loved each other intensely but it all came down to destructing everything they have ever owned. Being oppressed by parents, dealing with cultural differences and feeling a sense of demoralization caused by social discrimination - all those factors combined - obviously didn't allow them have some room to breathe. Very sincere and brutally realistic movie. Anyone who feels frustrated in their own world and looks for some kind of authenticity, something real would love and praise this movie. You'll find yourself both in Sibel and Cahit. In addition, this movie starts with this incredibly loud sound of "I feel you " by Depeche Mode. Wow. Feel the depth....
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balthazaaposted 706 days ago
