Head-On

Cahit, an alcoholic and suicidal, and Sibel, trying to escape her family, meet in a psychiatric hospital and make a deal: they will marry on paper and each live their own life. It breaks exactly where you expect it to. Fatih Akin's film won the Golden Bear at the 54th Berlin International Film Festival in 2004. That same year it took Best Film and the Audience Award at the European Film Awards and Best Actress at the German Film Awards, followed by the Goya for Best European Film in 2005. Birol Ünel and Sibel Kekilli star. Rainer Klausmann shot it, with music by Alexander Hacke and Mona Mur. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 91 percent and Metacritic at 78, with a consensus calling it a raw, provocative drama about star-crossed love and immigrants caught between the traditional and the modern. John Waters chose it as his annual pick at the 2006 Maryland Film Festival. It grossed around 11 million dollars worldwide. Who it is for: viewers who want migration, identity and self-harm carried in the same film. Who it is not for: anyone unprepared for violence and suicide. The film never softens those passages.