Titel.KINO 1/04.RV - german films

Gegen die Wand
HEAD-ON
”You can put an end to your life without killing yourself,“
whispers the doctor. And Cahit, 40, whose suicide
attempt has brought him to the psychiatric clinic,
knows what he means: by starting a new life. Yet the
anguish in his soul continues to cry out for drugs and
alcohol to numb his pain. Sibel – young, pretty and,
like Cahit, Turkish-German – loves life too much for a
proper Muslim girl. To escape from the prison of her
devout, conservative family, she fakes a suicide
attempt. But it brings shame, not freedom; only marriage
can save her. And so she begs Cahit to marry
her. Reluctantly, he agrees. Perhaps to save her.
Perhaps to do one meaningful thing in his life. They
share an apartment, but little else. She savors her freedom;
he has his occasional fling with his sometime
girlfriend. Until love enters his life on tip-toes. As he
falls in love with Sibel, he finds a new joy in life, the
strength to go on. Sibel continues to see other men.
Until she, too, realizes that she loves Cahit. But by
now it is too late: an explosion of jealousy ends in a
violent death. Cahit is sent to jail and Sibel flees to
Turkey. Her heart, her mind, her soul are still with
Cahit – but for how long?
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2003 Director Fatih Akin Screenplay Fatih
Akin Director of Photography Rainer Klausmann
Editor Andrew Bird Production Design Tamo Kunz
Producers Stefan Schubert, Ralph Schwingel Production
Company Wueste Film/Hamburg, in co-production with
NDR/Hamburg, ARTE/Strasbourg, Corazón International/
Hamburg Principal Cast Birol Uenel, Sibel Kekilli, Catrin
Striebeck, Meltem Cumbul, Gueven Kirac Casting Mai Seck
Length 123 min, 3,383 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version German/Turkish Subtitled Version
English Sound Technology Dolby Digital Surround Ex
Festival Screenings Berlin 2004 (in competition) With
backing from FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt
(FFA), Nordmedia, BKM German Distributor
timebandits films GmbH/Berlin
Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage.
He began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg’s
College of Fine Arts in 1994. His collaboration with Wueste
Film also dates from this time. In 1995, he wrote and directed
his first short feature, Sensin – You’re The One!
(Sensin – Du bist es!), which received the Audience Award
at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. His second
short film, Weed (Getuerkt, 1996), received several national
and international festival prizes. His first full-length feature
film, Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos,
1998) won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian
Film Award (Best Young Director) in 1998. His other films
include: In July (Im Juli, 2000), Wir haben vergessen
zurueckzukehren (2001), Solino (2002), and Head-
On (Gegen die Wand, 2003).
World Sales:
Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20
email: bavaria.international@bavaria-film.de · www.bavaria-film-international.de
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kino 1 new german films
2004 45
Sibel Kekilli (photo © WUESTE Filmproduktion/Kerstin Stelter)