October 2nd, 2007 | by Gautam |
On the surface it is as hard as a Metallica ballad and at the core it as much a love song as an angel’s whisper. Fatih Akin’s ‘Head On’ is a painfully brutal presentation of a beautiful love story and a serene treatment of stone cold reality. Set between a dichotomy of the cultures of
Germany and
Turkey, the film moves in this confusing exchange as both cultures collide head on; pun intended? Only Fatih Akin knows.
The film begins in
Germany with modern day turk Cahit (Birol Ünel) collecting discarded beer cans from a rock concert and drinking their leftovers. He is a careless, anti-social, heartless, frustrated drunkard who’s been growing worse ever since the death of his wife. His is next seen driving his car face-first into a solid wall. He wakes up in an asylum where he meets Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) a turkish girl who had attempted suicide by slitting her wrists after being abused by her conservative family for being too German. She offers Cahit a deal to marry her and take her away from her family in exchange for which she will stay out of his way and also take care of his apartment for him. After his initial refusal and another episode of wrist slitting by Sibel, he reluctantly agrees.
Sibel moves in with Cahit and as per their agreement they both live as merely room mates. Sibel cleans up the apartment in the daytime and has casual encounters with strangers in the night. What they both don’t see coming is that they are slowly falling into love with each other. And just when they are about to realize what they’re feeling for each other, Cahit accidentally kills one of Sibel’s lovers by slapping him too hard. He is imprisoned and Sibel is left broken.
She promises Cahit that she will await his return and departs to
Istanbul to stay with a relative. She starts a new life by cutting her beautiful hair short and getting a job and settles into a numb life. She slowly loses control and embarks on a descent into depression where she tires to drown her pain in drugs, alcohol and meaningless sexual encounters by anyone and everyone. She is eventually left for dead after being repeatedly stabbed by a couple of thugs on the street after she provokes them.
Cahit returns from prison years later and heads straight to
Istanbul in search of the only one thing that he is keeping him alive. Upon arrival he finds that Sibel has re-married and has settled into a traditional family life with a young daughter. They meet and agree to elope and pick up where they had last left off but in the end, Sibel doesn’t turn up and Cahit is left alone on the bus.
The film essentially deals with a lack of identity and the seemingly dangerous collision of counter-cultures. The lead characters both are Turkish immigrants living in
Germany and clearly lose their identity in their surroundings, indulging in the German life on the street. When the second half of the film shifts base to
Istanbul, everything is reversed and Sibel is left craving for an identity. She simply doesn’t know anymore if she is Turkish or if she is German. For the
Istanbul segment of the film, both characters’ appearances are changed. A previously long-haired, leather-clad, grizzly punk-rocker Cahit suddenly transforms into a suited-up and short-haired everyman while the formerly sex-symbol, femme fatale and almost-super modelish Sibel cuts her hair and wears the clothes that look like they belong to a 16-year old boy.
Fatih Akin also decorates every chapter of the film with intercuts from a performance by a traditional Turkish band overlooked by a silhouette of the Blue Mosque over the horizon. It is a very original and uncanny way to segregate the various chapters. The songs that these musicians perform also denote the mood of the following segment of the film.
Akin’s treatment is unique in its way of treating love with hardness and contempt with tenderness. ‘Head On’ is as much a German film as it is a Turkish film and at the same time it belongs to neither while providing a universal example. It is a modern masterpiece where you get lost while fully being aware of exactly where you are.
Here are some memorable stills from the film.
By Julian on Jun 9, 2008
great movie, simply a piece of life as it is. gave me shivers. thank you for this film!
By Harry Knutz on Jan 29, 2009
One of the best films I have ever seen. Heart-wrenching. Too “real”.