Themes: Immigrant Life, Marriages of Convenience, Culture Clash
Main Cast: Birol Ünel, Sibel Kekilli, Catrin Striebeck, Given Kirac, Meltem Cumbul
Release Year: 2004
Country: DE/TR
Run Time: 122 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
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, All Movie Guide
Cast
Birol Ünel - Cahit
Sibel Kekilli - Sibel
Catrin Striebeck - Maren
Given Kirac - Seref
Meltem Cumbul - Selma
Cem Akin - Yimaz Guner; Aysel Iscan - Birsen Guner; Demir Gokgol - Yunus Guner; Stefan Gebelhoff - Nico; Hermann Lause - Dr. Schiller; Adam Bousdoukos - Lukas; Ralph Misske - Ammer; Mehmet Kurtulus - Huseyin; Güven Kiraç
Credit
Mai Seck - Casting, Klaus Maeck - Consultant/advisor, Mehmet Kurtulus - Co-producer, Fatih Akin - Co-producer, Andreas Thiel - Co-producer, Fatih Akin - Director, Andrew D. Bird - Editor, Klaus Maeck - Musical Direction/Supervision, Daniel Schröder - Makeup, Nursen Balci - Makeup, Tamo Kunz - Production Designer, Rainer Klausmann - Cinematographer, Ingrid Holzapfel - Production Manager, Stefan Schubert - Producer, Ralph Schwingel - Producer, Richard Borowski - Sound Mixer, Kai Lüde - Sound/Sound Designer, Fatih Akin - Screenwriter, Katrin Aschendorf - Costume/Wardrobe
Cahit Tomruk (played by Birol Ünel) is a German of Turkish descent in his 40s. He has given up on life after the death of his wife and seeks solace in cocaine and alcohol. One night, he intentionally crashes into a wall (hence the title), and barely survives. At the psychiatric clinic he is taken to, Sibel Güner (Sibel Kekilli), another German Turk who has tried to commit suicide, approaches him. She asks Cahit to carry out a formal marriage with her so that she can break out of the strict rules of her conservative family. Cahit is initially turned off by the idea, but then he agrees to take part in this plan. As Sibel tells him frankly that she prefers an independent sex life, they live as roommates with separate private lives. They eventually fall in love, and things take a different turn as Cahit kills one of Sibel's former lovers out of anger and thus he has to go to prison. While Cahit is in prison, Sibel goes to Istanbul, where he follows her upon his release. Upon arrival, Cahit finds that Sibel is in a long-term relationship and now has a daughter. Sibel's cousin Selma does not tell Cahit how to find her, so he waits in a hotel for Sibel's call. It eventually comes. He asks her to run away with him, and she agrees to, but never shows up. The film ends with Cahit on a bus, presumably travelling to Mersin - the city where he was born.
Birol was an actual alcoholic in real life as he was as Cahit in Gegen die Wand. In fact, about half through the filming of Gegen die Wand, a Doctor told Birol that he had to stop drinking or he would die. Birol stopped drinking. In the movie, one notices that Birol (Cahit) lost considerable weight by the time he is in Turkey. Actress Sibel Kekilli underwent an appendectomy during the filming in Turkey.
