Head On (Gegen Die Wand) (Germany/Turkey 2003)

Winner of Golden Bear, Berlin 2004

Friday 2nd March 2007

The Little Theatre

Dir: Fatih Akin 120 mins

Melodrama exploring the turbulent relationship between two German Turks. A middle-aged man and a twenty-something woman are thrown together at a psychiatric clinic, having both attempted to commit suicide. Former punk Cahit is a widowed alcoholic, who collects the glasses at a Hamburg rock club, whilst the self-harming Sibel is desperate to escape from her traditionalist Muslim family and lead her own liberated life. She proposes a marriage of convenience to Cahit, his Turkish roots making him sufficiently acceptable to her relatives. Having tied the knot though, Cahit finds himself falling for his wife and jealous of her sexual affairs, and he responds to a friend's taunting with an act of fateful violence