German-born Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin writes and directs the drama Gegen die Wand (Head-On). Set in a working-class Hamburg neighborhood, the story follows two Turkish immigrants who get together in a marriage of convenience. Cahit Tomruk (Birol Ünel) is a heavy drinker and a fighter who crashes his car into a wall. While visiting his psychiatrist, Dr. Schiller (Hermann Lause), he meets fellow patient Sibel Guner (Sibel Kekilli). She's desperate to get away from her restrictive family, so she
asks Cahit to marry her. Wanting to change his life anyway, Cahit agrees to the arrangement. After their wedding, Sibel celebrates her freedom by drinking, dancing, and having one-night stands. Meanwhile, Cahit carries on an intimate relationship with hair stylist Maren (Catrin Striebeck). Eventually, Cahit and Sibel learn to care for one another after a climactic trip to Istanbul. Head-On won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
The power of Akin's film, which is considerably aided by the two lead performances ... comes from the spectacle of people developing feelings for each other even through numbing layers of mutual narcissism, self-loathing and raging terror of intimacy.
This is a gritty drama about self-destruction. On a basic level, its title refers to an early scene in which a man floors his car and plows into a brick wall. In a more general sense, it reflects the protagonists' fatalistic approach to life.
... Well and fearlessly acted, and the writer-director (Fatih Akin) is determined to follow her story to a logical and believable conclusion, rather than letting everyone off the hook with a conventional ending.
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