Head-O produced by Fatih Akin - Essay Example

Head-On 2004 Synopsis Head-On is a movie produced by Fatih Akin, a Turkish German director. It is a representationof mixed cultures and tries to show an existing conflict. The main actor is a Turkish German, Birol Unel acting under the name Cahit Tomruk, who is in his forties. After his wife dies, he loses all sense in being alive and embarks on a life of drugs and alcohol. In one of those dark moments in his life, he tries to commit suicide by driving head-on to a wall but fortunately he survives albeit through a slim chance. He is later taken to a psychiatric clinic to help him get through the psychological trauma. While there, he meets another troubled soul, Sibel Guner whose real name is Sibel Kekili, who also happens to be Turkish German and had tried to commit suicide. Sibel has a family who won’t allow her any piece of mind. She got herself a broken nose from her brother for holding hands with a boy and the entire family is getting into her neck for violating the strict family rules. Determined to break away from the strict rules imposed by her conservative family, she approaches Cahit to engage her in a marriage of convenience. She assures him that the marriage will only be a formality and they will only live as roommates with independent sex lives. Cahit is reluctant but finally agrees to the arrangement, seeing it as a new beginning for his messed-up life. The marriage takes off but Sibel continues with her one-night stands while Cahit continues to have an affair with a hair stylist, Maren. The turn of events changed dramatically as the two started to care of one another and finally falling in love. This outcome led Cahit to kill one of Sibel’s former lovers out of rage, an action that lands him in jail. During the period that he was in jail, Sibel decides to run away from her family and heads to Istanbul where her divorced cousin, Selma operates a hotel. She accepts a job at the hotel as a maid but she discovers that her new life is also like another prison, full of restrictions. So she looks for an alternative which is to leave her cousin and live with a bartender whose importance is to provide her with drugs and alcohol. Things do not turn out well as the bartender rapes her one day and then throws her out, back into her dark and tormented life. That night, in the streets all alone and with no one else to turn to, she decides she does not want to live anymore and baits some men to beat her up. She is stabbed by one of them and then they leave her all out there to die, but to her luck she does not die though it is not clear how she manages to recover from both the rape and assault. After serving his jail term, Cahit is out again. Determined to find Sibel again, he sets on for Istanbul where Sibel had gone to live with her cousin Selma. The cousin refuses to disclose to Cahit where Sibel lives but informs him of her being in a long-term relationship and her having a daughter. Cahit wants to talk to Sibel and is waiting in a hotel for a call from Sibel. When she finally calls, he tries to convince her to elope with him, something she finally agrees to. Unfortunately, she does not show up at the appointed date for reasons not disclosed. Eventually, Cahit beaten by life takes on a bus, probably headed to his place of Birth, Mersin. Theme (main idea) The main theme brought forward by Head-On is the conflict of cultures between individuals of Turkish origin and their daily lives in Germany. Both characters are of Turkish origin but they live in Germany; Hamburg where the setting of the movie was made. Sibel’s family represents the conventional conservative Turkish culture. Sibel, having grown up within a liberal German culture yearns to break away from the yoke of her family restrictions. She is more open-minded and libel about her sexuality and that is why she can afford to engage in one-night stands. Cahit on the other hand is torn between both cultures. He has an element of both German and Turkish cultures and he is not yet decided completely which way to go. This is the reason why he was reluctant to engage in a marriage of convenience in the first place and even after the marriage, he was in a relationship with a single partner, though on-again and off-again. This could also be the reason why he was enraged with Sibel’s previous partner and the eventual killing. The cities have also been carefully selected to effectively carry message home. Hamburg, the place where the movie is set, represents a multi-cultured population where people from various citizenry and cultures converge. The increased Turkish population could be traced to the 17th and 18th century the period during which there was an attempt to expand the Ottoman Empire to the North Balkan territories leaving a trail of Muslim Turks from the army. This historic moment was the beginning of a long history of interaction between the Turkish culture and the German culture. The city of Istanbul also helps in bringing out the theme. This city being the only in the world that is situated in two continents; Asia and Europe also brings out the element of conflict of cultures. Perhaps the fact that it has endured various political empires, including the Byzantine and the Ottoman Empire, with different religions and of course different cultures, makes it the perfect object to illustrate the conflicting cultures. In essence, the Turkish population in Germany lives in two different and conflicting cultures with different patterns of behavior and basically belonging to conflicting groups. At formal gatherings such as school and work places, the German culture, which is liberal and more tolerant and will dominate the day and the Turks will go along with it. But when they go back to the family and social setting, they are required to conform to the rules set by the traditionalist and conformist parent and relatives, which are exclusively Turkish in nature. This will definitely cause confusion and conflict as the two cultures can never totally integrate. And this is what Fatih Akin perfectly and in a calculated manner, puts across through Head-On. The Cinematic Aspects Akin goes for a convoluted and conventional look of the movie. The film embraces a complete conventional film esthetics as well as the narrative strategies. They hold a significant appeal for an International German audience. It possesses a nervous lowlife energy not common in other films. The leisurely and yet logical plotting coupled with careful attention to details of the characters and not more-than-enough life-affirming humor continue to keep the audience from cracking down with grief that the two characters go through in their journey to achieving mutual respect and love. Unel, acting under the name of Cahit brings an appealing aggression and fierceness to that role. Kekili, acting as Sibel has an agile beauty and magically forms a natural relationship with the camera. The technical bench tops in all the departments. The musical interludes that have been included underscore the tragedy in their bid to relieve the intensity of the grief and feelings of sadness that the movie elicits. Idil Uner, a longtime Akin crony, interprets a range of tunes by Selim Sesler, a Roman musician, which is accompanied against Istanbul scenery performed by a six-piece band, (Cockerell, Para. 4). All in all, the movie embraces the Berlin school of filming though far from the ordinary German one. The Message Put Across The message that is communicated across by Fatih Akin is the idea that Turkish immigrants are always in a hard situation trying to live up to their parents expectations and at the same time trying to fit in with the people they spend the day with, whether in school or work. This being so, parent should not be so harsh with their children and should find a way of solving the conflict without having to necessarily impose their wishes. Sibel, even though on a normal day anybody would condemn her for her seemingly ‘immoral’ behavior, has instead been portrayed as the victim such that one can only feel sorry for her. She is the object of pity and sympathy and anyone wishes that life could have been better for her. Akin is trying to tell us that, parents are the reason why their children’s lives become miserable and unbearable making them engage in degrading acts. If only more dialogue could be conducted between parents and children may be things would turn out differently. Also, the conflict of cultures, though dismissed as trivial, is very much real and the two should come together and find a way of reconciling the differences. A review of the Movie This movie was produced by Fatih Akin, a German film director who lives in Hamburg but of Turkish descent. It managed to win the Golden Bear during the Berlin International Film Festival for the year 2004. This was the first time in two decades that a German film took an award in the Berlin Golden Bear. It also scooped the European Film Award within one year of Becker’s Triumph. It was favored by many as a very relevant and well-calculated movie. The Turkish community appreciated its theme through their responses to the same. Part of the German population complained about the way they have been portrayed as being nonconformists and ‘loose’, but generally the movie was a hit in all parts. It is the kind of movie that you do not get contented with by watching only once. You need to take a step further. Work Cited Cockerell E., Head-On: Drama Romance. A Film by Fatih Akin. March 2004. Hamburg. Germany. Read More