‘Head-On’ explores disturbing ground
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, May 5, 2005
Two people coming together in a psychiatric clinic after suicide attempts is not the most obvious “meet cute” in movie history, but “Head-On” makes it work.
We are in Hamburg. A 40-year-old burnout named Cahit (Birol Unel) is mourning a dead wife and heading toward some kind of rock-‘n’-roll exit. Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), a fresh-faced girl in her early 20s, is frustrated by living with her traditional Turkish parents, who won’t let her have the wild life she craves.
She can’t move out and have freedom until she marries, and only a Turk will do for a bridegroom. She chooses Cahit – strictly as a functional arrangement.
He’s dubious, if not contemptuous, of the idea. But then he doesn’t really care one way or the other, so why not? Of course we might guess these two will eventually become interested in each other.
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There’s some comedy in the early going as Cahit goes through the motions of meeting Sibel’s parents. On the wedding night, Sibel goes out in her bridal gown and picks up a friendly bartender, which Cahit doesn’t mind.
But “Head-On” is not a comedy, and it gets darker and riskier as it goes along. Both Cahit and Sibel carry violence inside them, which comes out in dangerous ways. The movie never spells it out, but these two are wrestling with a Turkish culture that feels restrictive to them, and a German culture that doesn’t entirely include them.
The film captures that split visually, as the first half is set in Hamburg, the later part in Istanbul. Director Fatih Akin gets into some disturbing territory – this film never lets you come to peace about either character, nor easily predict what their next action will be.
The very different styles of the two lead performers help etch their prickly relationship. Leading lady Sibel Kekilli was discovered out of nowhere for her first film performance, but she looks like a natural.
Birol Unel, a veteran bad-boy figure, convincingly simmers throughout; he looks like Mickey Rourke during his greasy, long-haired period (which I suppose could be Mickey Rourke pretty much any time).
There’s a large Turkish population in Germany, but this isn’t an “issue” movie. It’s provokingly specific about its characters and their lives, and anything but bloodless.
