Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul

The German musician Alexander Hacke arrives in Istanbul with a portable recording studio and a microphone. He crosses the city recording whatever he finds: street players, Roma musicians, club stages, studios and houses. The film is not trying to reach a conclusion, it is drawing a map. Fatih Akin wrote, produced and directed. Hacke narrates; he is a member of Einsturzende Neubauten. More than twenty-three musicians appear and the range is deliberately wide: established figures such as Sezen Aksu and Sertab Erener alongside the younger generation of the time, Ceza and Duman among them. What emerges runs from classical Turkish music to indie rock and rap. An eighteen-track album was released from the film. It opened in Germany on 9 June 2005 and screened out of competition at Cannes the same year. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 89 percent with an average of 7.0. The box office was 704,094 dollars. Who it is for: anyone curious about the musical geography of Istanbul and who enjoys crossing between genres. Who it is not for: viewers expecting a deep portrait. The film calls on a great many names and stays long with none of them.