'HARSH, STRONG, ALMOST PUNK: 'HEAD ON'', by Naouel Abbadi

The first German film to win a Golden Bear in Berlin in 2004, Fatih Akin's Head-On is a desperate fable about a wild love and a current romantic tragedy rocked by oriental chants. It is the story of two human beings, taken in the hurly-burly of life.

Alcoholic since the accidental disappearance of his wife, Cahit Tomruk (performed by the sensational Birol Ünel) tries to commit suicide during a drunkenness night. At the hospital, he meets Sibel, a young lady quite determined to do what she likes pretty freely. Oppressed by her very traditional family, she dreams to gain her independence. But to get it, it is necessary that she marries a Turk. Cahit should do the trick but the love is well sure to oppose their plans, inviting itself inconveniently in the fictitious wedding. Little by little, both flat-mates become more sociable, they learn to live side by side, even if the sex remains a taboo subject: "if we make love together, we shall be then a husband and a wife", murmurs Sibel. For a long time restrained, the passion eventually bursts in broad daylight and the trajectories of both lovers will be changed for ever.

Fatih Akin's remarkable film is many things: an exploration of Turkish culture in Germany, a comedy, a tragedy, and above all, a romance. The punk Cahit is a sad-eyed, worn-out soul who, as the film rages on, realizes that he wants to hang tenaciously onto life for as long as he can. Sibel Kekilli, in her feature film debut, gives a heart-breaking performance. Erratic, vibrant, extreme, occasionally out of her mind, Sibel is a woman who can change a man.

Not only is Head-On visually beautiful, but it also relies heavily on musicality. Without music, the film loses a certain emotional strike and Akin is the first to admit the importance of it: "Film is a two-dimensional thing, but when you add music it becomes three, four, even five-dimensional".

A tragedy of two lonely souls, the film opens with Cahit driving his car head-on into a brick wall: the first and most transparent realization of the threat stated in the title. But despite all the film's griminess and doom, bad behaviour and bad luck, it is hope that engines Head-On. These characters are intimately exposed; feelings of both genuine pleasure and pain bared wide open on the screen. Head-On is positively gripping.