Head On (Gegen Die Wand) Review
One of the obvious benefits of running a site like this is that I am often exposed to excellent films that I would otherwise miss entirely. Such is the case with Head On (Gegen Die Wand), a brilliant, searing film that has received little notice on these shores despite winning major awards around the world. I guess there's just not much of a market for Turko-German social critique ...
Head On revolves around Cahit and Sibel, a pair of Turks living in Germany. When we first meet Cahit - a forty-something man who makes a living cleaning up empties at a goth-punk bar - he is about as unappealing as is humanly possible. Unwashed and unshaven Cahit is in the midst of a massive drunk, so degraded and desperate for alcohol that he finishes the last stagnant dregs found in abandoned glasses at his cleaning job. He staggers from bar to bar becoming more abrasive, more abusive at each stop. The binge comes to an abrupt end when Cahit drives his car head on, at full speed, into a brick wall. This is ruled an attempted suicide and Cahit is forced into a psychiatric hospital.
Enter Sibel. A twenty year old Turkish woman committed to the same hospital after slashing her wrists, Sibel recognizes Cahit as a fellow Turk after hearing his name in a waiting room and, without so much as an introduction, asks him to marry her. When Cahit brushes her off as a crazy person she responds first with kindness - sneaking him off hospital grounds and to a bar - and, on his further refusal, with violence - smashing a bottle and again slashing her wrists right in front of him.
What is really going on here? Why would a young, attractive woman be so desperate to marry an older broken down drunk who she doesn't even know? In essence Sibel finds her life as a single Turkish woman - completely under the control of her family - so intensely restrictive that she sees only death or marriage as possible escapes. Suicide hasn't worked and so she latches on to Cahit as a possible savior, proposing a marriage of convenience so that she can escape the family home and live the lifestyle she wants. Cahit eventually relents and agrees to the arrangement.
As you might guess Head On is not exactly bright and cheery family viewing. It has built something of a reputation for its moments of graphic sex and shocking violence - to say nothing of the faux-controversy surrounding the casting of a former porn star - and while those elements are certainly present focusing on them puts you at risk of missing the point. The core of the film is the Turkish experience of contemporary society, the clash of traditional values with modern life, and while the film says little on the positive side of either system it is admirably frank on the failures of both. It is a cautionary tale of excess at both ends of the spectrum and how pushing any social system to the extreme is ultimately destructive. Head On opts not to offer up any easy answers, choosing instead to live in a world of moral ambiguity that may choose to focus on the darker side of the human experience but rings remarkably true while doing so.
The weight of the film rests purely on Cahit and Sibel and both leads are more than up to the task, turning in gripping, subtle and completely fearless performances.
As the film progresses we begin to catch glimpses of Cahit's inner world - the intense pain that threatens to consume him and a loathing for Turkish culture and, by extension, himself - and we see him slowly begin to have faith in himself as his relationship with Sibel gradually grants him a strange sense of hope. Sibel draws Cahit out of himself, giving him something to care about, and he is better off for it.
Sibel charts a parallel but opposite course. The entire point of her relationship with Cahit is to take her out of the eye of her family and allow her to live according only to her own whims. While Cahit is becoming more socialized Sibel is becoming less so. There is a brief moment when their paths cross and happiness seems possible but that moment is inevitably and violently torn apart.
As strong as the lead characters are they are easily matched by the support players. From Cahit's sole friend, to his conflicted relationship with his occassional lover, to Sibel's much admired divorced - and thus independent - cousin, to the members of Sibel's family, the supporting characters are all fully fleshed out. Sibel's brother, in particular, initially comes across as a charicatured shot at the Bad Turk, but he proves to be far more subtly layered than that.
The direction is firm and assured balancing the more difficult elements against the characters' personal journeys to near perfection, managing to capture some truly harrowing moments without ever veering into exploitation. The film also has an impressive visual style and a willingness to play with structure most obviously demonstrated by the use of a traditional Turkish musical group as a sort of Greek Chorus, appearing from time to time to introduce new themes and mark transitions.
Thus far the only edition of the film world wide to include English subtitles is the Korean release and though Korean releases have been known to be cut for sexual content that does not appear to be the case here. Though this is the only edition I have seen the presence of frontal nudity both male and female and the complete lack of any obviously out of place edits makes me believe that this edition is untouched. As you'd expect from a Korean release the quality is excellent on all levels - audio, video and subs are all top notch. Highly recommended. You can find the DVD here.
