MUBI

Head-on is essentially a love story (as well as a cultural one) about two second-generation Turks in Germany who marry to escape – Sibel to escape the her family’s oppressive, tradition-bound expectations and Cahit to escape the emptiness that has followed the loss of his beloved first wife. Since her death, Cahit has been on a seemingly unstoppable bender, spending most of his time drinking, doing coke, and getting the crap beaten out of himself. Following what could either be deemed as an accident or a suicide attempt, he winds up in a psych ward, where he meets Sibel, who is so desperate to evade the ultra-conservative strictures placed upon her that she too has unsuccessfully attempted to off herself. She feels her only other option is to find a Turkish Muslim husband, and even if he’s not good for anything else, Cahit is at least good enough for that.

Sibel convinces Cahit to enter into a sham marriage with her, one in which both their needs can be met. 40-something Cahit gets someone to care for him since he’s been rendered so incapable of caring for himself, and the decades-younger Sibel gets to leave home under the protection conferred her by a ring on the finger, but since it’s just a marriage of convenience, she’s free to sow her wild oats as she pleases. What they neglect to consider is that once one’s minimum needs are met, it’s human nature to want more, especially when it comes to the heart. Their separate but equal desires to thrive, not just survive, give rise to unforeseen complications within the framework of the arrangement. How they choose to deal with these developments will change each of them at the very core of their beings.

Akin, whose The Edge of Heaven is also exceedingly good, has done two things extremely well here. One is that he’s written a story in which nothing goes as expected. Every time I thought I knew what came next, the plot tossed up a curve ball but a realistic one; I never felt like the story was contrived, and Akin never takes the easy way out. Also, what I loved loved loved about this film was the character development. The Cahit and Sibel we meet in the beginning of the film are very different people than the Cahit and Sibel at film’s end. Their journey is so completely credible, and I was so caught up in the events of the film that I didn’t realize what a ride I’d been on until the credits rolled. That leads to the other thing for which Akin is to be applauded, which is the editing (or for choosing the incredibly skilled editor Andrew Bird). Especially if you watch the deleted scenes, you will come away with the feeling that Akin is a master craftsmen and storyteller. He’s got a great ear for dialogue (at least as far as I can tell with the translated subtitles) and great taste in musical accompaniment. (I delighted in the film transitions consisting of Turkish folk musicians dressed to the nines, performing on a Turkish carpet by the seaside with Istanbul looming behind them, and I am dying to find Zinoba’s cover of Talk Talk’s “Life As You Make It.”) This is the first movie I’ve seen in years that I simply could not stop watching. I viewed it three times in a row and replayed every single moment of it several times more in my head. On all levels, this is an amazing film, and quite likely my favorite of all-time. It’s fearless, it’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s raw, it’s challenging, it’s joyful, it’s complex, it’s gut-wrenching, it’s dreamy, it’s political, it’s harrowing – it’s a full emotional workout.

Head-On and The Edge of Heaven are two parts of Akin’s planned trilogy on “love, death, and evil.” As of 2011, the last installment, entitled The Devil, has not yet begun production.