Head-On [Gegen die Wand]
by Fatih Akin
![Head-On [Gegen die Wand]](/images/Head-On-Gegen-die-Wand-B0009VND0E-L.jpg)
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Actor: Birol Ünel, Catrin Striebeck, Meltem Cumbul, Sibel Kekilli, Stefan GebelhoffDirector: Fatih Akin
Producer: Fatih Akin
Writer: Fatih Akin
Producer: Ali Akdeniz
Producer: Andreas Schreitmüller
Producer: Andreas Thiel
Producer: Jeanette Würl
Producer: Mehmet Kurtulus
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); German (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Turkish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-13
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Strand Releasing
DVD Reviews of Head-On [Gegen die Wand]
DVD Review: Self-Destructive Twosome Find Complicated Romance
Summary: 4 Stars
I am not Turkish, but I am one of those in-between people like the protagonists (living with two cultures, immigrant child of immigrants), so something rang very true here when I watched Sibel rebel against the constraints of a tradition that was more caging of women than men and more sexually guarded than the culture at large (it was similar in my Cuban upbringing).
Unlike Sibel, I wasn't self-destructive and, frankly, unhinged.
But the reason this story is so intriguing is because both leads, Sibel and Cahit, are people on a path toward death--he drinks to excess and attempts suicide via head-on collision with a wall. She slices up her arms and takes drugs, the biggest drug being one-night stands with men she hooks up with in bars or, well, wherever.
They're both a mess, and it's painful and repulsive and fascinating to see them just make incredibly stupid, desperate decisions.
Cahit and Sibel meet at a mental hospital (both after suicide attempts). She is a scrawny, wild-haired, but strangely mesmerizing woman; he is a spaced-out slob stuck in some dark groove. We see her light dimmed in her family's presence. We see her family suffering over her crazy acting out. And we see and understand why she sees this disheveled and suicidal and barely coherent drunk as her way out. They marry because what else can be done? That's how they see it. He has nothing better to do. She sees this as her only out from a repressive home environment. The director is savvy and sensitive enough not to paint the parents as tyrants squashing Sibel's spirit. We see they do love her, and we see that from their perspective, their way is right, and she is wrapped up in evil and shamefulness. They are not wholly wrong. She is not behaving maturely or thoughtfully or smartly. She really is acting like an immature, selfish, whacked out sex addict.
The film lets us see the awfulness of Cahit and Sibel's situations, but we also see moments when their better natures shine through. As Cahit begins to actually fall in love with this woman who is wife in name only, who sleeps with other men and comes home with the dawn. We see him value the touches she brings--a tidier home, fresh Turkish meals she learned from her mother, just laughing together, dancing together. He begins to reengage with life. Sibel, however, is setting up a flashpoint situation.
And everything will change with an act that is both understandable and criminal.
The movie then takes a new turn, and we find ourselves in Turkey, where we know a stricken Sibel will either turn over a new leaf or meet her demise.
And Cahit will find that his destiny is more and yet less than what he imagined.
There are moments in the film where we cut to a scene of a turkish band (all male) and a female singer performing on the shore of some body of water--the Bosphorus?--with Istanbul visible across the river and the Haggia Sophia quite prominent. It's an interesting device that keeps us locked into a sense of another culture. The here (Germany) and there (Turkey), and that span of separation (the river)...all immigrants understand that metaphor.
The two lead actors are rivetting. I've never seen them before, but the woman who plays Sibel has such intensity in her eyes, and she can look horribly unappealing or amazingly sexy depending on how she brightens or dims. The actor who plays Cahit has this same ability--he can be repulsive or appealing depending on a shift of expression, a change in the eyes or posture. They both vividly portray obsession and depression and living on the edge of destruction or salvation.
It's a difficult film to watch, because deep human pain and stupidity are hard to watch without feeling superior at one moment, ashamed at another, compassionate another, and helpless another. You sympathize with nearly ALL the characters, who are in their way each trapped by desires and expectations and not fitting into some mold--whether it's the brother of Sibel, Sibel, Cahit, or Cahit's "uncle", or Sibel's mother and father...
The message, life is hard, but you can make it harder or easier on yourself. And love, love is powerful, love is resurrecting, love can give you hope and fill you with life again, but love can also be something elusive and short-lived and, always, surprising.
This film is not for a day you want to be cheerful. It's for a day when you're not afraid to see broken humanity and maybe commisserate and pray.
Description of Head-On [Gegen die Wand]
Studio: Strand Releasing Release Date: 04/06/2006Head-On, Fatih Akin's gritty drama, is like a great punk-rock song-- rough around the edges, but filled with heart. Cahit (Birol Ünel) is a middle-aged drunk whose apartment looks like the toilet in Trainspotting. Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) is a suicidal woman half his age, stuck at home with repressive relatives. They're two troubled Turks, adrift in Germany. A chance encounter at a psychiatric hospital represents a way out. If Cahit will marry her, Sibel can flee her family. They'll accept him, because he's Turkish. As for Cahit, he won't be alone anymore, left to mourn his dead wife and drink his life away. At first, things go as planned. Sibel moves into Cahit's dump and spiffs it up. The two live, eat, and party together, while continuing to see other people. Gradually, their marriage of convenience starts to resemble the real thing--until Cahit's violent tendencies get the best of him. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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