German helmer Fatih Akin's latest, "Soul Kitchen," is a lark, but an enjoyable one. The film sees the director of "Head On" and "The Edge of Heaven" doing schtick for the first time -- not as odd a transition as one might think from his previous dramas, which have in common a deeply felt human touch and sense of interconnection. In fact, Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos) wishes he were a little less connected at the start of "Soul Kitchen" -- his brother Illyas (Moritz Bleibtreu) is out on conditional probation and needs a job at his restaurant, a high school acquaintance is going after the land that restaurant sits on, the Hamburg Tax Office is looking to collect back taxes and the one person he wishes were around, his girlfriend, is headed to Shanghai for six months for work. He also has chronic back pains, which don't do him any...
- 9/15/2009
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet is the refuted refrain of this musical exploration, namely the symbiosis of musical sounds in Istanbul, from eastern Anatolian to Western hip-hop.
Scripted and directed by Fatih Akin (Head-On), this musical documentary likely will find its major audience in Germany, where the immigrant-minority Turk citizenry will take to its array of sounds, smears and social commentary as cultural nourishment.
Filmmaker Akin centers his musical exploration Crossing the Bridge around Alexander Hacke, a member of the German avant-garde group Einsturzende Neubauten. Ensconcing himself in Istanbul's Grand Hotel de Londres with a computer, Hacke embarks on recording the musical diversity of Istanbul, the Turkish city that is thought of as bridging the East and the West.
Quite sagely, but almost disastrously, Hacke's musicological trip begins with a neo-psychedelic band, Baba Zula, whose influences run from Pink Floyd to Oriental strains. Unfortunately, the Baba Zula wawa is faux: It's a noxious mix of "flower power" with Arabian Nights kitsch -- marginally appealing to Europeans and anathema to Turks. It's the worst kind of jam session, namely jamming together the asynchronous sounds of two vastly different traditions to create, well, an atonal mess.
It's not until nearly the midpoint of this comprehensive film that Bridge finds its thematic voice and, ironically, when it contradicts itself with an emphasis on the musical purities of the separate traditions. Only when the multicultural conceit of vastly different musical traditions blending to produce a transcendent sound is muted does the film finally jell.
A musical high point, and the moment when the nonsensical notion of eliminating all differences within a multiethnic society is neatly decimated, is the rousing performance of Kurdish singer Aynur. Her glorious vocal lamentations of her oppressed people reverberates with a proud melancholy -- much richer and far more glorious than the forced mix of the modern musical movements.
Crossing the Bridge Bavaria Film International Producers: Fatih Akin, Klaus Maeck, Andreas Thiel, Sandra Harzer-Kux, Christian Kux Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Line producer: Tina Mersmann
Director of photography: Herve Dieu Editor: Andrew Bird
Sound: Johannes Grehl: Music and sound: Alexander Hacke Music Consultant: Klaus Maeck
Cast: Alexander Hacke, Baba Zula, Orient Expressions, Duman, Replikas, Erkih Koray, Ceza, Sezen Aksu, Orhan Gencebay
Running time -- 90 minutes...
Scripted and directed by Fatih Akin (Head-On), this musical documentary likely will find its major audience in Germany, where the immigrant-minority Turk citizenry will take to its array of sounds, smears and social commentary as cultural nourishment.
Filmmaker Akin centers his musical exploration Crossing the Bridge around Alexander Hacke, a member of the German avant-garde group Einsturzende Neubauten. Ensconcing himself in Istanbul's Grand Hotel de Londres with a computer, Hacke embarks on recording the musical diversity of Istanbul, the Turkish city that is thought of as bridging the East and the West.
Quite sagely, but almost disastrously, Hacke's musicological trip begins with a neo-psychedelic band, Baba Zula, whose influences run from Pink Floyd to Oriental strains. Unfortunately, the Baba Zula wawa is faux: It's a noxious mix of "flower power" with Arabian Nights kitsch -- marginally appealing to Europeans and anathema to Turks. It's the worst kind of jam session, namely jamming together the asynchronous sounds of two vastly different traditions to create, well, an atonal mess.
It's not until nearly the midpoint of this comprehensive film that Bridge finds its thematic voice and, ironically, when it contradicts itself with an emphasis on the musical purities of the separate traditions. Only when the multicultural conceit of vastly different musical traditions blending to produce a transcendent sound is muted does the film finally jell.
A musical high point, and the moment when the nonsensical notion of eliminating all differences within a multiethnic society is neatly decimated, is the rousing performance of Kurdish singer Aynur. Her glorious vocal lamentations of her oppressed people reverberates with a proud melancholy -- much richer and far more glorious than the forced mix of the modern musical movements.
Crossing the Bridge Bavaria Film International Producers: Fatih Akin, Klaus Maeck, Andreas Thiel, Sandra Harzer-Kux, Christian Kux Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Line producer: Tina Mersmann
Director of photography: Herve Dieu Editor: Andrew Bird
Sound: Johannes Grehl: Music and sound: Alexander Hacke Music Consultant: Klaus Maeck
Cast: Alexander Hacke, Baba Zula, Orient Expressions, Duman, Replikas, Erkih Koray, Ceza, Sezen Aksu, Orhan Gencebay
Running time -- 90 minutes...
- 5/13/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet is the refuted refrain of this musical exploration, namely the symbiosis of musical sounds in Istanbul, from eastern Anatolian to Western hip-hop.
Scripted and directed by Fatih Akin (Head-On), this musical document will likely find its major audience in Germany, where the immigrant-minority Turk citizenry, will take to its array of sounds, smears and social commentary as cultural nourishment.
Filmmaker Akin centers his musical exploration around Alexander Hacke, a member of the German avant-garde group Einsturzende Neubauten. Ensconcing himself in Istanbul's Grand Hotel de Londres with a computer, Hacke embarks on recording the musical diversity of Istanbul, the Turkish city which is thought of as bridging the East and the West.
Quite sagely, but almost disastrously, Hacke's musicological trip begins with a neo-psychedelic band, Baba Zula, whose influences run from Pink Floyd to Oriental strains: Unfortunately, the Baba Zula wawa is faux: It's a noxious mix of "flower power" with Arabian Nights kitsch -- marginally appealing to Europeans and anathema to Turks. It's the worst kind of jam session, namely jamming together the asynchronous sounds of two vastly different traditions, to create, well, an atonal mess.
It's not until nearly the midpoint of this comprehensive document, that Crossing the Bridge finds its thematic voice, and, then, ironically when it contradicts itself with an emphasis on the musical purities of the separate traditions. Only when the multi-cultural conceit of vastly different musical traditions blending to produce a transcendent sound is muted does Crossing the Bridge finally jell.
A musical highpoint, and the moment when the nonsensical notion of eliminating all differences within a multiethnic society is neatly decimated, is the rousing performance of Kurdish singer Aynur. Her glorious vocal lamentations of her oppressed people reverberates with a proud melancholy -- much richer and far more glorious than the forced mix of the modern musical movements.
Crossing the Bridge Bavaria Film International Producers: Fatih Akin, Klaus Maeck, Andreas Thiel, Sandra Harzer-Kux, Christian Kux Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Line producer: Tina Mersmann
Director of photography: Herve Dieu Editor: Andrew Bird
Sound: Johannes Grehl: Music and sound: Alexander Hacke Music Consultant: Klaus Maeck
Cast: Alexander Hacke, Baba Zula, Orient Expressions, Duman, Replikas, Erkih Koray, Ceza, Sezen Aksu, Orhan Gencebay
Running time -- 90 minutes...
Scripted and directed by Fatih Akin (Head-On), this musical document will likely find its major audience in Germany, where the immigrant-minority Turk citizenry, will take to its array of sounds, smears and social commentary as cultural nourishment.
Filmmaker Akin centers his musical exploration around Alexander Hacke, a member of the German avant-garde group Einsturzende Neubauten. Ensconcing himself in Istanbul's Grand Hotel de Londres with a computer, Hacke embarks on recording the musical diversity of Istanbul, the Turkish city which is thought of as bridging the East and the West.
Quite sagely, but almost disastrously, Hacke's musicological trip begins with a neo-psychedelic band, Baba Zula, whose influences run from Pink Floyd to Oriental strains: Unfortunately, the Baba Zula wawa is faux: It's a noxious mix of "flower power" with Arabian Nights kitsch -- marginally appealing to Europeans and anathema to Turks. It's the worst kind of jam session, namely jamming together the asynchronous sounds of two vastly different traditions, to create, well, an atonal mess.
It's not until nearly the midpoint of this comprehensive document, that Crossing the Bridge finds its thematic voice, and, then, ironically when it contradicts itself with an emphasis on the musical purities of the separate traditions. Only when the multi-cultural conceit of vastly different musical traditions blending to produce a transcendent sound is muted does Crossing the Bridge finally jell.
A musical highpoint, and the moment when the nonsensical notion of eliminating all differences within a multiethnic society is neatly decimated, is the rousing performance of Kurdish singer Aynur. Her glorious vocal lamentations of her oppressed people reverberates with a proud melancholy -- much richer and far more glorious than the forced mix of the modern musical movements.
Crossing the Bridge Bavaria Film International Producers: Fatih Akin, Klaus Maeck, Andreas Thiel, Sandra Harzer-Kux, Christian Kux Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Line producer: Tina Mersmann
Director of photography: Herve Dieu Editor: Andrew Bird
Sound: Johannes Grehl: Music and sound: Alexander Hacke Music Consultant: Klaus Maeck
Cast: Alexander Hacke, Baba Zula, Orient Expressions, Duman, Replikas, Erkih Koray, Ceza, Sezen Aksu, Orhan Gencebay
Running time -- 90 minutes...
- 5/12/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Head-On" (Gegan die Wand) is an intense, romantic, funny-sad, sometimes harrowing, always moving portrait of cultural estrangement and the power of love. The immediate subject of Fatih Akin's fourth feature as a writer and director is German residents of Turkish extraction. But his film achieves a universality that makes the situation easily understood by audiences anywhere. It could be Algerians in France or Chinese in America, and this would be the same story. The film, which won the Berlin festival's Golden Bear, deserves wide exposure on the festival circuit followed by key art house dates.
Akin has drawn strong performances from his entire cast, especially his main actors, veteran Birol Unel and newcomer Sibel Kekilli. They play two thoroughly Westernized Turks living in Hamburg who can't come to terms with the East/West divide in their souls. Unel's Cahit is an anti-social alcoholic, trying unsuccessfully to drown the pain of his wife's death. Kekilli's Sibel is a 20-year-old free spirit desperate to escape her strict Muslim family, including an overprotective brother. They meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide.
Sibel begs Cahit for a marriage of convenience that will allow her to leave her family's home. Eventually, he agrees. For a while, things go great: She keeps the place tidy and fixes better meals than he is used to. He gets drunk every night, usually winding up in a stupor, while she goes to bed with as many guys as she pleases.
The problem is that the two gradually fall in love. Then Cahit kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage. He winds up in the pen, while she, promising to wait for him, flees her family to Istanbul. There she debases herself in an orgy of self-destruction.
The film feels like a comedy for a while, but by smoothly introducing tragic elements, Akin deepens our understanding of the world of second-generation Turkish immigrants and allows his characters, both unrepentant hedonists, to express their individuality without concern for genre conventions. Predictability is shattered as each character is forced to confront his dark side and find the means to make peace with himself.
"Head-On" is a compelling movie in spite of -- or is it actually because of? -- the self-destructive nature of its two protagonists. They fight so hard for every bit of happiness they earn, yet culture and circumstances fight back even harder.
All of which makes the film sound like a complete downer. Actually, some of it is quite funny. Cahit pointing out to Sibel that she failed to slash her wrists in a manner that would ensure her demise is bleakly funny. But other scenes are cheerfully funny, like Cahit's encounter with a Turkish cabbie in Istanbul where they discover they are both "Germans".
Technical credits are fine, including Rainer Klausmann's sharp camerawork and musical interludes featuring songs of lost or unrequited love played by a six-piece band against an Istanbul skyline.
Gegan die Wand
Wueste in association with Corazon International, NDR/Arte
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Producers: Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Production designer: Tamo Kunz
Music consultant: Klaus Maeck
Co-producer: Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel, Mehmet Kurtulus
Costume designer: Katrin Aschendorf
Editor: Andrew Bird
Cast:
Cahit: Birol Unel
Sibel: Sibel Kekilli
Maren: Catrin Striebeck
Seref: Guven Kirac
Selma: Meltem Cumbul
Yimaz Guner: Cem Akin
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Head-On" (Gegan die Wand) is an intense, romantic, funny-sad, sometimes harrowing, always moving portrait of cultural estrangement and the power of love. The immediate subject of Fatih Akin's fourth feature as a writer and director is German residents of Turkish extraction. But his film achieves a universality that makes the situation easily understood by audiences anywhere. It could be Algerians in France or Chinese in America, and this would be the same story. The film, which won the Berlin festival's Golden Bear, deserves wide exposure on the festival circuit followed by key art house dates.
Akin has drawn strong performances from his entire cast, especially his main actors, veteran Birol Unel and newcomer Sibel Kekilli. They play two thoroughly Westernized Turks living in Hamburg who can't come to terms with the East/West divide in their souls. Unel's Cahit is an anti-social alcoholic, trying unsuccessfully to drown the pain of his wife's death. Kekilli's Sibel is a 20-year-old free spirit desperate to escape her strict Muslim family, including an overprotective brother. They meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide.
Sibel begs Cahit for a marriage of convenience that will allow her to leave her family's home. Eventually, he agrees. For a while, things go great: She keeps the place tidy and fixes better meals than he is used to. He gets drunk every night, usually winding up in a stupor, while she goes to bed with as many guys as she pleases.
The problem is that the two gradually fall in love. Then Cahit kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage. He winds up in the pen, while she, promising to wait for him, flees her family to Istanbul. There she debases herself in an orgy of self-destruction.
The film feels like a comedy for a while, but by smoothly introducing tragic elements, Akin deepens our understanding of the world of second-generation Turkish immigrants and allows his characters, both unrepentant hedonists, to express their individuality without concern for genre conventions. Predictability is shattered as each character is forced to confront his dark side and find the means to make peace with himself.
"Head-On" is a compelling movie in spite of -- or is it actually because of? -- the self-destructive nature of its two protagonists. They fight so hard for every bit of happiness they earn, yet culture and circumstances fight back even harder.
All of which makes the film sound like a complete downer. Actually, some of it is quite funny. Cahit pointing out to Sibel that she failed to slash her wrists in a manner that would ensure her demise is bleakly funny. But other scenes are cheerfully funny, like Cahit's encounter with a Turkish cabbie in Istanbul where they discover they are both "Germans".
Technical credits are fine, including Rainer Klausmann's sharp camerawork and musical interludes featuring songs of lost or unrequited love played by a six-piece band against an Istanbul skyline.
Gegan die Wand
Wueste in association with Corazon International, NDR/Arte
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Producers: Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Production designer: Tamo Kunz
Music consultant: Klaus Maeck
Co-producer: Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel, Mehmet Kurtulus
Costume designer: Katrin Aschendorf
Editor: Andrew Bird
Cast:
Cahit: Birol Unel
Sibel: Sibel Kekilli
Maren: Catrin Striebeck
Seref: Guven Kirac
Selma: Meltem Cumbul
Yimaz Guner: Cem Akin
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
COLOGNE, Germany -- Hot off his Golden Bear win for "Head-On" at the Berlin International Film Festival, German director Fatih Akin has received initial backing for his next project -- the comedy "Soul Kitchen" -- from German regional subsidy board Filmfoerderung Hamburg (FFH), the board said Tuesday. FFH said it would provide €60,000 ($73,946) in development cash for "Soul Kitchen", which depicts the midlife crisis of a Hamburg restaurant owner. The project will be produced by Corazon International, the new production company formed last year by Akin and producer Andreas Thiel. Other projects under development at the Hamburg-based firm include Akin's Turkish music documentary "Crossing the Bridge -- The Sound of Istanbul" and "Nichts Geht Mehr" (Nothing Works), the directorial debut of German star Moritz Bleibtreu.
Screened
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Head-On" (Gegan die Wand) is an intense, romantic, funny-sad, sometimes harrowing, always moving portrait of cultural estrangement and the power of love. The immediate subject of Fatih Akin's fourth feature as a writer and director is German residents of Turkish extraction. But his film achieves a universality that makes the situation easily understood by audiences anywhere. It could be Algerians in France or Chinese in America, and this would be the same story. The film, which won the Berlin festival's Golden Bear, deserves wide exposure on the festival circuit followed by key art house dates.
Akin has drawn strong performances from his entire cast, especially his main actors, veteran Birol Unel and newcomer Sibel Kekilli. They play two thoroughly Westernized Turks living in Hamburg who can't come to terms with the East/West divide in their souls. Unel's Cahit is an anti-social alcoholic, trying unsuccessfully to drown the pain of his wife's death. Kekilli's Sibel is a 20-year-old free spirit desperate to escape her strict Muslim family, including an overprotective brother. They meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide.
Sibel begs Cahit for a marriage of convenience that will allow her to leave her family's home. Eventually, he agrees. For a while, things go great: She keeps the place tidy and fixes better meals than he is used to. He gets drunk every night, usually winding up in a stupor, while she goes to bed with as many guys as she pleases.
The problem is that the two gradually fall in love. Then Cahit kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage. He winds up in the pen, while she, promising to wait for him, flees her family to Istanbul. There she debases herself in an orgy of self-destruction.
The film feels like a comedy for a while, but by smoothly introducing tragic elements, Akin deepens our understanding of the world of second-generation Turkish immigrants and allows his characters, both unrepentant hedonists, to express their individuality without concern for genre conventions. Predictability is shattered as each character is forced to confront his dark side and find the means to make peace with himself.
"Head-On" is a compelling movie in spite of -- or is it actually because of? -- the self-destructive nature of its two protagonists. They fight so hard for every bit of happiness they earn, yet culture and circumstances fight back even harder.
All of which makes the film sound like a complete downer. Actually, some of it is quite funny. Cahit pointing out to Sibel that she failed to slash her wrists in a manner that would ensure her demise is bleakly funny. But other scenes are cheerfully funny, like Cahit's encounter with a Turkish cabbie in Istanbul where they discover they are both "Germans".
Technical credits are fine, including Rainer Klausmann's sharp camerawork and musical interludes featuring songs of lost or unrequited love played by a six-piece band against an Istanbul skyline.
Gegan die Wand
Wueste in association with Corazon International, NDR/Arte
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Producers: Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Production designer: Tamo Kunz
Music consultant: Klaus Maeck
Co-producer: Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel, Mehmet Kurtulus
Costume designer: Katrin Aschendorf
Editor: Andrew Bird
Cast:
Cahit: Birol Unel
Sibel: Sibel Kekilli
Maren: Catrin Striebeck
Seref: Guven Kirac
Selma: Meltem Cumbul
Yimaz Guner: Cem Akin
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Head-On" (Gegan die Wand) is an intense, romantic, funny-sad, sometimes harrowing, always moving portrait of cultural estrangement and the power of love. The immediate subject of Fatih Akin's fourth feature as a writer and director is German residents of Turkish extraction. But his film achieves a universality that makes the situation easily understood by audiences anywhere. It could be Algerians in France or Chinese in America, and this would be the same story. The film, which won the Berlin festival's Golden Bear, deserves wide exposure on the festival circuit followed by key art house dates.
Akin has drawn strong performances from his entire cast, especially his main actors, veteran Birol Unel and newcomer Sibel Kekilli. They play two thoroughly Westernized Turks living in Hamburg who can't come to terms with the East/West divide in their souls. Unel's Cahit is an anti-social alcoholic, trying unsuccessfully to drown the pain of his wife's death. Kekilli's Sibel is a 20-year-old free spirit desperate to escape her strict Muslim family, including an overprotective brother. They meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide.
Sibel begs Cahit for a marriage of convenience that will allow her to leave her family's home. Eventually, he agrees. For a while, things go great: She keeps the place tidy and fixes better meals than he is used to. He gets drunk every night, usually winding up in a stupor, while she goes to bed with as many guys as she pleases.
The problem is that the two gradually fall in love. Then Cahit kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage. He winds up in the pen, while she, promising to wait for him, flees her family to Istanbul. There she debases herself in an orgy of self-destruction.
The film feels like a comedy for a while, but by smoothly introducing tragic elements, Akin deepens our understanding of the world of second-generation Turkish immigrants and allows his characters, both unrepentant hedonists, to express their individuality without concern for genre conventions. Predictability is shattered as each character is forced to confront his dark side and find the means to make peace with himself.
"Head-On" is a compelling movie in spite of -- or is it actually because of? -- the self-destructive nature of its two protagonists. They fight so hard for every bit of happiness they earn, yet culture and circumstances fight back even harder.
All of which makes the film sound like a complete downer. Actually, some of it is quite funny. Cahit pointing out to Sibel that she failed to slash her wrists in a manner that would ensure her demise is bleakly funny. But other scenes are cheerfully funny, like Cahit's encounter with a Turkish cabbie in Istanbul where they discover they are both "Germans".
Technical credits are fine, including Rainer Klausmann's sharp camerawork and musical interludes featuring songs of lost or unrequited love played by a six-piece band against an Istanbul skyline.
Gegan die Wand
Wueste in association with Corazon International, NDR/Arte
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Fatih Akin
Producers: Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert
Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann
Production designer: Tamo Kunz
Music consultant: Klaus Maeck
Co-producer: Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel, Mehmet Kurtulus
Costume designer: Katrin Aschendorf
Editor: Andrew Bird
Cast:
Cahit: Birol Unel
Sibel: Sibel Kekilli
Maren: Catrin Striebeck
Seref: Guven Kirac
Selma: Meltem Cumbul
Yimaz Guner: Cem Akin
Running time -- 122 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/19/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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