Head-On is a German film, but it’s about the second
generation of Turkish immigrants to that country and how they are caught
between the older traditions and the new lives available to them as German
citizens. The focus is on two such
people – Cahit (Birol Unel) and Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) – who are husband and
wife…sort of. This film probably
contains the best illustration I have ever seen of the phrase “Can’t live with
‘em, can’t live without ‘em.”
Cahit is a man around 40 years old. He makes a living picking up bottles in a bar
after it closes. Needless to say, this
isn’t something he takes pride in. He
spends much of his free time getting drunk, and after being thrown out of a bar one night he drives his car head-on into a wall.
It may have been a suicide attempt or it may have been him just not
caring, but either way he wakes up in a rehabilitation center that specializes
in suicidal people.
Not long after he wakes up he spots Sibel in a waiting
room. She seems interested in him for some
reason. When he comes out of his therapy
session she asks him to marry her. He
thinks she’s crazy, and that’s not a bad hypothesis considering where he is. He blows her off. She tracks him down and once again asks him
to marry her. She tells him she has to
get away from her family and the only way she can do that is by marrying a
Turkish man. Her family is very
conservative and will not accept a woman being on her own, nor marrying anyone
other than a man from the same background.
She tells Cahit that they will be roommates, not a real husband and
wife. She will pay all the
expenses. Cahit agrees even though his
friend tells him he’s crazy.
Cahit isn’t exactly a catch, so he and Sibel do their best
to improve upon his appearance. They
also lie and say he owns a bar, rather than just having a menial job at
one. Sibel’s father and brother are not
happy about her wanting to get married.
They are used to controlling everything about her life. Sibel’s mother isn’t happy with the age
difference between the two. (Sibel is in
her 20s.) After meeting all of them
Cahit starts to understand why Sibel had her own suicide attempt. Eventually her family agrees and Cahit and
Sibel are married.
Sibel takes advantage of her new freedom and uses it to go out
partying. Cahit goes with her sometimes,
but they always end up spending the night with someone else. Cahit has a somewhat steady lover, and Sibel
just picks up whatever man catches her fancy.
Time passes and Cahit and Sibel start to learn about the other. Each starts to make some attempts to treat
each other better, but then one of them will do something that will send the
other into a rage.
Eventually each of them has feelings for the other, and
those feelings might even be love.
Because of their situation, each is very reluctant to admit that to the
other. Making things worse is the fact
that Sibel wants to not have sex with Cahit because then they will have
consummated the marriage and will be husband and wife for real. That scares her. One night Cahit can’t take it anymore and gets
jealous when Sibel is being picked up by a former boyfriend. Cahit fights with him and accidentally kills
him. In her distress Sibel cuts her arm
wide open.
Cahit ends up going to jail, and although Sibel lives, her
conservative father disowns her and her bordering-on-psychotic brother
determines he has to kill her to return the family to honor. When she gets out of the hospital he is
waiting for her. Sibel sees him and literally runs for her life.
The movie now shifts to Istanbul , Turkey Istanbul to find her and win her back. Will he succeed?
Both Birol Unel as Cahit and Sibel Kekilli as Sibel do
fantastic jobs in their roles. They each
received a number of nominations and wins for their performances. They carry this movie on their backs. I can’t imagine anyone else in either
role. And the movie itself also received
any number of nominations and wins. It
was the first German film in 17 years to win the Golden Lion at the Berlin Film
Festival.
Showing that the tabloid press are pretty much a bunch of
shits the whole world over, the German version of them waited until right
before a huge awards ceremony to start running stories about how Kekilli had
starred in about two dozen adult films prior to making her mainstream debut in
this one. This was true, but presented
in as negative a way as possible.
Kekilli still ended up winning Best Actress at that particular awards
show, but there was some fallout afterwards.
It took her six more years and seven more films before she returned to
the awards podium to receive her second Best Actress award for her performance
in 2010’s When We Leave (aka Die Fremd).
She is probably best known now for having played Shae on the TV show
Game of Thrones for four seasons.
Head-On is a powerful, realistic take on two troubled people
in and out of a relationship. It’s
certainly not a feel good film, but it’s not one that will make you want to kill
yourself afterwards, either. I feel it
is very well done and is about as honest as it can be. Unless you have strong reservations to seeing
this because of the subject matter then I highly recommend it.
Chip’s Rating: 4 out
of 5 stars
I agree with you that this is a hard one to watch. It is a hell of a good film, though, and it's one that I recommend without much reservation.
ReplyDeleteI've had this described to me as satisfying, but unhappy. I think that's pretty apt.
That is a good description of it. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteI had an odd experiences with Head-On, I initially hated the characters and turned it off, but on second viewing a few years later I began to see it for what it is, a powerful story with impressive performances. I liked how it was critical of the Turkish family values. I now rank it in my top 10 of 2004, and would also recommend Fatih Akin's 2008 film The Edge of Heaven.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the characters are not really intended to be likable. That often hurts my enjoyment of a movie, but I think in this case they were presented with such a raw honesty that I felt that was the way they were supposed to be presented.
DeleteThanks for the tip on the other movie.