In St. Pauli, Hamburg, the alcoholic, drugged and hopeless German with Turkish roots Cahit Tomruk (Birol Ünen) lives like a pig in a small dirty apartment and survives collecting empty bottles in the night-club "Der Fabrik". One night, he gives up living, and hits his car against a wall. However, he survives the crash and is sent to a clinic, where he meets Sibel Güner (Sibel Kekilli), a younger German Turk, with suicidal tendencies. Sibel is the younger daughter of a conservative Turkish family, and proposes a fake marriage to Cahit, in order to permit her to leave her family; in return, she would share the rent of the flat, and she would cook and clean the place, and they could have independent lives. Cahit accepts, but while living with Sibel, he falls in love for her, until a tragedy happens.
I saw "Gegen die Wand" yesterday and I am still very impressive with this powerful German movie. It is bitter, sad, heavy, unpleasant but also an original and very realistic non-Hollywoodian love story. The location in St. Pauli, close to the famous Reeperban Street, could not be more perfect as the environment for such depressive story of losers. The precise direction of Faith Akin (obs: IMDb dictionary does not allow to write correctly the name of the director) is stunning, and the performance of Birol Ünen and Sibel Kekilli are outstanding and deserved nominations to the Oscar. When the character Sibel reaches the bottom of the well in Istanbul, Sibel Kekilli shines with a mesmerizing performance. Unfortunately we will never see Hollywood shooting this type of story, which is recommended for very special audiences. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Contra a Parede" ("Against the Wall")
