|
Film | Crossing the Bridge
| Il Cinema di Fatih Akin
MedFilm Festival 2008, in collaboration with Goethe Institut Rom, proudly presents - first time in Italy - the complete Fatih Akin's filmography.
A second-generation German of Turkish origin, born in Hamburg in 1973, Fatih Akin expresses in his films a complex yet delicate, poetic and at the same time ironic and violent world. He deals with cultural conflict, violated identities, life on the road and harsh everyday dramas. His cinema is not only about emigration, although in his works the detachment between the host country and the country of origin is always a strong-felt issue. The beauty and the contradictions of Turkey seem to relive in the busy streets of Germany, in dark alleys, in the silence and in the urban chaos. With a style that is based on temporal suspension, a solid narrative structure, sudden explosions of passion, satirical ideas tending towards the grotesque, fragmentation of the points of view, the director has established himself as the modern bard of traditions and differences, conflict and integration.
Between 1994 and 2000 Atkin studied visual communication at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg. His first short Sensin - Du bist es! (Sensin - You're the One!, 1995) won the audience award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. His feature film debut in 1997 comes with Kurz und schmerzlos (Short Sharp Shock); a dense and colorful puzzle on the lives of three immigrants (a Turk, a Serb and a Greek) in Hamburg. The film gets the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno Festival and the prize for best newcomer at the Bavarian Awards in Monaco.
Im Juli (In July, 2000) is a road movie that has as its main character a professor traveling in Eastern Europe with the intention of reaching Istanbul. His aim is to rediscover his roots and the consciousness of his people. This is a common thread that unites many second-generation migrants. His third film Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren (I Think About Germany: "We Forgot to Go Back", 2001), a very intimate documentary on the return of the director's parents from Germany to Turkey, becomes an excuse to explore feelings common to all people far from their homes, not necessarily that of origin.
Solino (2002) is another story of immigration that deals with a family originally from the Apulia region that moves to Duisburg in the 60s. At the time Germany is undergoing a profound change; cinema drives the dreams and aspirations of the two protagonist brothers. The conflicts and misunderstandings which arise when they return to their home country will not dent in any way the relationship between the two brothers; the experience instead serves as a reconnaissance of their past. In 2003 the director founded with his friend Klaus Maek a small production company, the Corazón International. The company produces his films, supports and co-produces the debut of the Turkish director Oezer Kiziltan, Takva - A Man's Fear of God (2006). Akin then co-produces the Italian documentary Men of Honor (Francesco Sbano, 2006) and Mamorosh of the Serbian Moma Mrdakovic.
This is his prelude to the international success that he obtained in 2003: Head-on (Gegen die wand) which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival. With this film Akin reaches formal completeness. The story of Cahit and Sibel is one filled with growing tension and hard realism. It is a drama that concerns different ethnic communities and the dilemma they face of remaining faithful to the traditions and the desire to embrace what is new. A harsh yet sensitive film, which finds a balance between the instincts of Mélo Fassbinder, the bewildering comedy of Kaurismaki and Kusturica, Jim Jarmusch's losers, a reference never hidden by the author. All this is underlined by the musical intervals of a band that plays on the shores of the Bosphorus.
Music is also the backbone of the Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul (2004), a documentary on the rock, hip hop and folk scene of the great Turkish city, presented at the Cannes festival. The bridge to be crossed is the one between the two cultures of East and West. Leading the camera between clubs, dance halls, smoky bars, suburbs and sea shores is Alexander Hacke; author of the music of Head-on and member of the German industrial band Einststürzende Neubauten.
In 2007 Akin returns to fiction with The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderei Seite), the second part of the trilogy on Love, Death & the Devil, that received the best screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival. It is the story of six people whose lives intersect; each of whom is searching for something different. Uprooting, existential confusion, loneliness are at the basis of the relationship between these characters. The story takes place between Hamburg, Bremen, Istanbul, Trabzon leaving the viewer with the key to interpret their private dramas and political attractions/repulsion. Atkin teaches us that we can remain separated from our ideals, or chose to overcome them in order to reach the "other side".
Aud der anderen Seite
The Edge of Heaven
(Ai confini del Paradiso)
by Faith Akin
122', 2007
[8 Nov, 22.00 - Teatro dei Dioscuri]
Nejat seems disapproving about his widower father Ali's choice of prostitute Yeter for a live-in girlfriend. But he grows fond of her when he discovers she sends money home to Turkey for her daughter's university studies. Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter's daughter Ayten. Political activist Ayten has fled the Turkish police and is already in Germany. She is befriended by a young woman, Lotte, who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home. When Ayten is arrested and imprisoned in Turkey. Lotte travels to Turkey...
Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul
by Fatih Akin
92', 2004
[7 Nov, 20.00 - Teatro dei Dioscuri]
Alexander Hacke, member of the experimental industrial German band Einstürzende Neubauten, back to Istanbul to describe a western point of view, a view from the distance, in a foreign, tense, erotic, dangerous, tempting city. Faith Akin wishes to introduce an international audience to the diversity and uniqueness of the historic and recent expressions of musical creativity in the heart of Istanbul.
Gegen die Wand
Head-On
(La sposa turca)
by Fatih Akin
121', 2003
[9 Nov, 16.00 - Teatro dei Dioscuri]
Cahit, 40, whose suicide attempt has brought him to the psychiatric clinic, want to start 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...
Solino
by Fatih Akin
124', 2002
[11 Nov, 20.00 - Teatro dei Dioscuri]
Italy in the 1960s. Romano and Rosa, the parents of the two young brothers Gigi and Giancarlo, decide to leave their sun-drenched home in Apulia and move to Germany. In the grey industrial rust-belt they soon open the first pizza parlour of the neighbourhood. While Romano is wrapped up in his role, his wife Rosa continues to suffer from incurable homesickness. Gigi and Giancarlo make their own new experiences, but they will become rivals in their quest for love and success.
Denk ich an Deutschland - Wir haben vergessen zurüeckzukehren
When I Think about Germany - "We Forgot to Go Back"
by Fatih Akin
60', 2001
[12 Nov, 20.00 - Teatro dei Dioscuri]
Fatih Akin's father arrived in Hamburg in 1965 and found work in a factory. He wanted to stay only two years, but in the end he brought over his wife too and he still works in the same chemical plant where he found a job thirty-six years ago. A film seeking its roots, investigating the life of a Turkish family with a German passport. A journey from Hamburg to Filyos, a small fishing town on the Black Sea coast, from where Fatih's father left to start a new life.
Im Juli
In July
by Fatih Akin
99', 2000
[10 Nov, 20.00 - Teatro dei Dioscuri]
Daniel is a shy physics teacher. He falls head over heals in love with a beautiful girl called Melek, and spontaneously decides to follow her to Istanbul. Daniel sets out for the long trip from Hamburg to Istanbul together with his crazy friend July, who sells jewelry and has always secretly worshipped Daniel. On this wild odyssey through south-eastern Europe he will discover a new self.
Kurz und schmerzlos
Short Sharp Shock
by Fatih Akin
100', 1997
[7 Nov, 22.00 - Teatro dei Dioscuri]
Costa, a Greek; Bobby, a Serb; Gabriel, a Turk: they used to be a neighbourhood gang in Hamburg Altona. One for all, all for one. But much has changed since Gabriel went to prison. He has decided to grow up, but his buddies are holding him back...
Getürkt
Weed
by Fatih Akin
12', 1997
[12 Nov, 20.00 - Teatro dei Dioscuri]
Musa, a young Turk from Hamburg on holiday on the Black Sea, spends his days in the parents home. He gets into trouble when makes the 'gangsta' of the zone believe that he can push nice weed...
Sensin - Du bist es!
Sensis - You're the One!
by Fatih Akin
11', 1995
[12 Nov, 20.00 - Teatro dei Dioscuri]
Kubilei is a young Turk with a very clear idea of what the girl of his dreams should be like. She has to love Marlboros, punk and Robert De Niro. One day he meets Deniz in a bar in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg. She's Turkish, is wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Taxi Driver, a ring in her nose and a great big seductive smile. Kubilei is prepared to do anything to get her...
|
