Gegen die Wand (2004)

Director:

Fatih Akin

Writer:

Fatih Akin (book)

Release Date:

11 March 2004 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

In 'Gegen die Wand' Cahit, a 40-something male from Mersin in Turkey has removed everything Turkish from his life...

Plot Keywords:

German | Turkish | Marriage | Hospital | Alcoholic

Awards:

23 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Birol Ünel	...	Cahit Tomruk
Sibel Kekilli	...	Sibel
Catrin Striebeck	...	Maren
Meltem Cumbul	...	Selma (Cousine)
Stefan Gebelhoff	...	Nico
Francesco Fiannaca	...	Mann am Tresen
Mona Mur	...	Stammkundin Zoe Bar
Ralph Misske	...	Patient 1 (Psychiatrie)
Philipp Baltus	...	Patient 2 (Psychiatrie)
Hermann Lause	...	Dr. Schiller
Karin Niwiger	...	Kassiererin (Psychiatrie)
Demir Gökgöl	...	Yunus Güner (Vater)
Cem Akin	...	Yilmaz Güner (Bruder)
Aysel Iscan	...	Birsen Güner (Mutter)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Monique Akin	...	Kundin im Friseurladen
Canan Ata	...	Canan
Cahit Aygüler	...	Schläger
Adam Bousdoukos	...	Barmann - Hochzeitsnacht
Yilmaz Canan	...	Türsteher #1
Aytun Ede	...	Musiker
Selim Erdogan	...	Taxifahrer
Tugay Erverdi	...	Osman #3
Nurcan Esmertürk	...	Nurcan
Marco Greiser	...	Abschlepper Disco
Orhan Güner	...	Busfahrer
Sileyman Kaplan	...	Sly
Hatun Kazci	...	Hatice
Güven Kiraç	...	Seref
Feridun Koc	...	Osman #1
Mehmet Kurtulus	...	Barmann Istanbul
Zarah McKenzie	...	Barfrau in der Fabrik
Alma Ouglu Sahin	...	Türsteher 2
Reinhold Schulz	...	Gefängnisbeamter
Tulga Serim	...	Osman #2
Tim Seyfi	...	Bayerischer Taxifahrer
Herr Tekin	...	Barbier
Andreas Thiel	...	Standesbeamter
Misra Tomruk	...	Pamuk - Tochter
Senol Ugurlu	...	Shane
Fanfare Ciocarlia	...	Musiker (uncredited)

Directed by
Fatih Akin

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Fatih Akin		book

Produced by
Ali Akdeniz	....	line producer: Turkey
Fatih Akin	....	co-producer
Mehmet Kurtulus	....	co-producer
Andreas Schreitmüller	....	producer: arte
Stefan Schubert	....	producer
Ralph Schwingel	....	producer
Andreas Thiel	....	co-producer
Jeanette Würl	....	producer: NDR

Original Music by
Alexander Hacke
Maceo Parker

Cinematography by
Rainer Klausmann

Film Editing by
Andrew Bird

Casting by
Mai Seck
Mia Seck
Harika Uygur

Production Design by
Tamo Kunz

Art Direction by
Sirma Bradley
Nergis Çaliskan

Costume Design by
Katrin Aschendorf

Makeup Department
Nursen Balci	....	makeup supervisor
Daniel Schröder	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
Muharrem Gulmez	....	production manager: Turkey
Ingrid Holzapfel	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Andreas Thiel	....	assistant director
Nergis Usta	....	assistant director

Art Department
Christoph Birth	....	props
Beate ter Schüren	....	property master

Sound Department
Richard Borowski	....	sound mixer
Kai Greve	....	trouble shooter
Hubert Henle	....	stereo sound consultant: Dolby
Thomas Knop	....	foley recordist
Jörg Krieger	....	sound designer
Martin Langenbach	....	foley artist
Kai Lüde	....	sound
Matthias Münster	....	adr recordist
Nani Schumann	....	sound designer
Herbert Wüst	....	boom operator

Special Effects by
Peter Wiemker	....	special effects

Stunts
Emanuel Bettencourt	....	fights choreographer
Josh Haggerty	....	stunts
Soncke M. Korries	....	stunts (as Sönke Korries)
Jochen Lange	....	stunts
Uwe Mansshardt	....	stunts
Ronnie Paul	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Ümit Barlas	....	lighting technician: Turkey
Clemens Bley	....	assistant camera: second unit
Stefan Bräsen	....	electrician
Carol Burandt von Kameke	....	assistant camera
Hervé Dieu	....	assistant camera
Annika Eysel	....	assistant camera: second unit
Christian Klopp	....	camera operator: second unit
Torsten Lemke	....	gaffer
Maike Maier	....	grip
Carsten Scharrmann	....	grip
Kerstin Stelter	....	still photographer

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Almut Stier	....	costume assistant

Editorial Department
Stefanie Delfs	....	negative cutter
Ilona Gehr	....	negative cutter
Nikolai Hartmann	....	assistant editor
Petra Schütt	....	color grader

Music Department
Klaus Maeck	....	music consultant
Alex Menck	....	composer: additional music

Other crew
Mira Amari	....	coach: actors
Georgios Arvanitis	....	set intern
Roman Brandt	....	location manager
Dewi Grobecker	....	payroll
Uwe Grobecker	....	production accountant
Uwe Kolbe	....	legal & business affairs
Oliver Lammert	....	title designer
Birgit Nentwig	....	production assistant
Erhan Ozogul	....	production accountant: Turkey
Andreas Schreitmüller	....	misc crew
Nergis Usta	....	continuity
Jan Weber	....	location manager
Jeanette Würl	....	misc crew

Production Companies

• Arte
• Bavaria Film International
• Corazón International
• Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)
• Panfilm
• Wüste Filmproduktion

Distributors

• Timebandits Films (2004) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (2004) (Germany) (DVD)
• Cineworx (2004) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Polyfilm Verleih (2004) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Alfa Films (2005) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Cinemien (2004) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• MK2 Diffusion (2004) (France) (theatrical)
• Orlando Films (2004) (Israel) (theatrical)
• Soda Pictures (2005) (UK) (theatrical)
• Strand Releasing (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• With Cinema (2004) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• BIM Distribuzione (2004) (Italy) (all media)
• Homescreen (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep (VPRO) (2008) (Netherlands) (TV) (first national airing)

Other Companies

• CamCruiser Hamburg  camera cars
• Cinegate  camera equipment provided by
• Filmförderung Hamburg  funding
• Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA)  funding
• Konken Studios  foley recording
• Kortwich  sound equipment
• Loft Ton Studios GmbH  sound mixing
• SUBS Hamburg  subtitles
• nordmedia Fonds GmbH  funding

Also Known As:

Head-On (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
Duvara karsi (Turkey: Turkish title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong graphic sexuality, pervasive language, some brutal violence and drug content.

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

Germany | Turkey

Language:

German | Turkish | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hong Kong:III | New Zealand:R18 | Chile:14 | Hungary:16 | Iceland:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Japan:R-18 | South Korea:18 | Australia:R | Argentina:16 | Brazil:18 | Czech Republic:15 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:12 | Italy:VM14 | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:R21 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Fabrik, Altona, Hamburg, Germany

Company:

Arte

Trivia:

Director Fatih Akin auditioned over 350 actresses for the role of Sibel.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The psychiatrist at the beginning of the film tells Cahit about a song by the band The The containing the line "If you can't change the world, change your world". The actual quote (from the song "Lonely Planet", included in the album "Dusk") is "If you can't change the world, change yourself".

Quotes:

Cahit: Are you strong enough to split both of us?
Selma: Are you strong enough to destroy her life?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005)

Soundtrack:

Into Your Eyes

Splashy chronicle of a generation in revolt against tradition (worth watching)

Head On (Gegen die Wand), winner of the top prize "Golden Bear" at the 2004 Berlin Festival, is occasionally interrupted by a panoramic shot of a singer performing in front of a small Turkish orchestra on the banks of the Bosphorus across from Istanbul. It's a simple, at first incomprehensible, little device that provides punctuation and clarity amid the chaos and melodrama that otherwise dominate this story of a Turkish man in his forties and a twenty-year-old Turkish woman who meet in a psychiatric facility in Germany when both have attempted suicide -- he by crashing his car into a wall ("head on"), she by slitting her wrists. Cahit Tomruk (the sublimely attitudinizing Birol Ünel) is a purposeless rock 'n' roll loving boozer with a dead-end job collecting bottles at a club, and Sibel Güner (the wiry, intense Sibel Kikulli) is a young woman with conservative Turkish parents who wants to escape family pressures.

Both are total drama queens and both are German-born Turks. Cahit is more assimilated; his Turkish isn't even good. Sibel figures if he'll agree to marry her that'll get her away from her family. This is the irony of their situation: she must capitulate to the conventions of their culture in order to gain some freedom from it, and he must capitulate to society in order to get some sense of purpose. So they do get married -- he somehow passes muster with the stuffy family, baulking all the way -- and they eventually even fall in love. Her joie de vivre is exactly what he needs, and she's essentially just as wild in her way as he is in his -- but his nihilism and violence continue unabated and so does her promiscuity, and his brutal attack on one of her one night stands leads to jail and scandal, which in turn forces her to go to Istanbul. While he's incarcerated she writes him sustaining letters from Turkey -- their relationship, like the staid orchestra on the Bosphorus, is a stable element amid the surrounding chaos -- and after jail he goes to Turkey to find her.

To say this turbulent, brightly colored, lurid story is a "realistic picture of Turks in Germany" would be a total distortion of the truth. But somehow the situation of Cahit and Sibel reflects the unstable moods this half assimilated, half alien population experiences, and however melodramatic and unresolved the saga is, the two main characters are very well realized. The actors are strong, especially Birol Ünel, whose charismatic brooding and ravaged good looks make him irresistibly watchable. Both feel real to us -- he sardonic and gloomy, she dangerously spirited and full of life-- despite her dramatic suicide attempts, of which there's more than one. The story, as much as the images through which it's told, is both dark and vibrant.

We need the Brechtian, Greek-chorus device of those orchestral interludes on the Bosphorus, though: without an occasional break the drama and darkness would be too much. We also need to go with the flow of this movie, and not expect it to be more polished or more organized, or even better looking, than it is. It looks unlike most films we're seeing now, but that doesn't mean the cinematographer hasn't done the best possible job. What it has is life, tumultuous with incident, strong personalities, and a milieu we've not seen before. There's also a loud, authentic-feeling rock-pop soundtrack and a cunning contrast between Cahit's punk-rock sensibility and Sibel's love of good grooming and dance. Arguably the movie is too long, but that length gives it the feel of a saga, which it must have, because that's what it is, the confused, tawdry epic of a generation. Like all first films by a whole subculture, it has a lot to talk about. When Sibel and Cahit discover they still love each other, after everything, it's the Turkish Germans discovering that they have self-worth. The last scenes are open-ended: this generation's future is anybody's guess.

Seen in Paris 17 September 2004. Opening in the US in January 2005. First German film to win a Golden Bear in Berlin in eighteen years.