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| Gegen die Wand (Head-On) | | Date Created: Jan 16, 2005, 10:55 PM |
 Head-On (Gegen die Wand --- literally hitting the wall)
To be frank, I was not sure what to expect from Gegen die Wand. The Straits Times gave it three-and-a-half stars out of five but was typically brief and unhelpful in its review, only mentioning "strong performances from Unel and Kekilli give tender nuance to Turkish German director Fatih Akin's uneven study of two destructive personalities discovering meaning and life in each other in a working-class Hamburg neighbourhood." (that is the entire review --- I told you it was short.) I remembered vaguely that it had won some international film prize (turns out it was the 2004 Golden Bear at the Berlinale, the first German film to do so since 1986) but went in with very little idea about what to expect and even lower expectations. I was pleasantly surprised that Gegen is a strong effort that tackles how two prisoners of life, one imprisoned by his past and alcohol and the other by her conservative Turkish family, find strength from each other to rediscover their love for life.
Cahit Tomruk (Birol Unel), a disillusioned middle-aged alcoholic, tries to end his life by driving his car full speed against a wall. (Un)fortunately for him, he survives and is placed in a hospital where he meets Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) a young woman of Turkish descent who also attempted suicide. Sibel begs Cahit to marry her and release her from the weight of conforming to her conservative Turkish family so that she can live life to the fullest (she wants "to be laid a lot and not by the same man"). She promises that she will lead her own life and not be an imposition on Cahit, who has been a single bum since the death of his wife. Cahit, intrigued by this offer from the pretty Sibel and looking for someone to share his rent, reluctantly agrees.
Slowly, Sibel brings love, and some very needed order back into Cahit?s life. Cahit finds himself attracted to Sibel but cannot bring himself to admit his feelings. He grows increasingly jealous as Sibel uses her new-found freedom to engage in flings every night and when taunted in a bar by one of Sibel?s lovers, Cahit kills the lover in a fit of rage. He is sentenced to jail and Sibel finally realizes his love for her.
Promising to wait for his release, Sibel moves to Istanbul to live with her sister who is working as a manager in a hotel. Frustrated at having to work long hours cleaning rooms in the hotel and desirous of a return to the happy care-free days with Cahit, Sibel prowls bars looking to score on drugs and sex. She gets into an argument with three men in a dark alley and is left to die when the altercation becomes violent. A taxi-driver saves her and Sibel?s life starts to take a turn for the better.
Years later, Cahit is finally released from prison and he travels to Istanbul to meet Sibel again. But now, he has to confront the fact that the woman whose love gave him the strength to live, has now found a new life for herself and Cahit must decide if his love for Sibel is strong enough for him to let her go.
One aspect about Gegen that I found interesting was its characterization of the Turks in Germany. Cahit and Sibel both feel more German than Turkish but cannot shake off the many ties to their Turkish heritage. In particular, Sibel is trapped in a conservative Turkish family with its many unwritten rules about family authority and acceptable behaviour. This strict conservatism stands in stark contrast to the scenes of Turkey itself where Sibel?s sister supervises men in the hotel and can openly order wine, whereas Cahit has to make sure that the chocolates that he offers to Sibel?s father is alcohol-free. I am not sure if it was the director?s intention, but this seems to me to be symptomatic of diasporas, ie they tend to be stricter in their observation of rules and traditions as these form a web that gives them a social context and link back to the homeland. In Singapore, we see this most starkly in Indian families that emigrated from India. One Indian told me how patriarchs and matriarchs of such families still cling on to their romanticized notions of the India they left, when India has changed considerably since then in terms of social attitudes.
But at its core, Gegen is a story about Cahit and Sibel. What surprised me was how Cahit and Sibel slowly gained my sympathy and even respect despite their best efforts to screw up their lives. This is testimony to the stellar performances by Unel and Kekilli. Unel deserves special mention for his metamorphosis from a washed out bum with a deathwish, to a world-weary alchoholic, and finally to a determined man with a new lease of life. These two sterling performances are reason enough to catch Gegen. But I recommend that you bring a strong stomach with you --- some scenes got uncomfortably violent and some viewers might find the sex scenes unpalatable.
---O---
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