Pretty Good

Just perfect...

The acting in this movie is really good.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

With the intention to break free from the strict familial restrictions, a suicidal young woman sets up a marriage of convenience with a forty-year-old addict, an act that will lead to an outburst of envious love. Gegen die Wand might be one of the funniest films i have ever seen especially when the girl gets beaten by 3 dudes and starts calling them names and attacking one of them again and again and then her face started turning into 'Balboa' from the beating plus she was on the floor and someone took advantage of her. I mean one of the funniest comedies of all time just don't see it tho. (0/10)

As with many foreign films I probably would never have heard of this German-Turkish film if it wasn't featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so that was for me the best reason to try it. Basically forty something Turkish German man Cahit Tomruk (Birol Ünel) has given up on life after his wife died and takes cocaine and drinks alcohol to get through everyday, and one night he attempts suicide driving his car head-on into a wall, but he barely survives the crash. He is taken to a psychiatric clinic where he meets another Turkish German, also suicidal Sibel Güner (Sibel Kekilli), and she asks him to carry out the most bizarre plan, she wants him to marry her, with no questions asked, so that she can break away from her strict conservative family, he is outraged by the idea. Eventually though Cahit agrees to the plan she explains she prefers a sex life independently, the have separate private lives but share a place as roommates, but as time goes by they do fall in love, but he kills a former lover of her's in anger and goes to prison. While he is locked away Sibel gets away from her family travelling to Istanbul to stay with Selma (Meltem Cumbul), her divorced hotel manager cousin, she accepts a job in the hotel, but finds her new life restrictive like prison, so she goes to live in the apartment of a bartender who gives her drugs and alcohol. The bartender rapes her and throws her out, and wandering the streets following this she antagonises three men to beat her up severely, continuing to urge them on to the point when one pulls a knife, and they run and leave her for dead. Several years pass, Cahit has been released and goes to Istanbul to find his wife, Selma initially refuses to tell him where she is, but she tells him she is in a long-term relationship and with a daughter, we do not see how she recovered from the rape and beating. Cahit waits for Sibel to call him, and they meet and make love, he wants her to run away with him to which she agrees, but packing she hears her husband and is delighted to see her daughter, so she never returns to Cahit, he travels on a bus somewhere, possibly to his birth city Mersin. Also starring Catrin Striebeck as Maren, Stefan Gebelhoff as Nico and Hermann Lause as Dr. Schiller. It is a recognisable story of a non romantic encounter with an odd circumstance, in this case a non- relationship based wedding, and slowly falling in love over time, but also there are distinctive moments that stand out, for me especially the very violent beating of the leading woman, and also drug taking and alcoholism, it is a most watchable romantic drama. Very good!

German screenwriter, producer and director F Akin's fourth feature film which he wrote and co-produced with producers Ralph Schwingel and Stefan Schubert, is the first part of a planned trilogy called "Love, death and the devil" which was succeeded by "The Edge of Heaven" (2007). It premiered In competition at the 54th Berlin International Film Festival in 2004, was shot on location in Istanbul, Turkey and Germany and is a Germany-Turkey co-production. It tells the story about Cahit Tomruk, a heartbroken and devastated man in his early forties who is slowly killing himself with alcohol and drugs, and Sibel Güner, a both suicidal and lively woman in her early twenties tormented by the guilt and shame that has been brought upon her by her family who sees her as a disgrace. After nearly driving himself to death, Cahit is sent to a psychiatric hospital in Hamburg, Germany where he meets Sibel who wants him to marry her so that she can get away from her family. Cahit is more bothered than interested in this young woman, but when he learns about her situation with her family he decides to help her out and marries her. Sibel moves in with Cahit and though leading separate lives, Sibel tries her utmost to gain Cahit's affection. Cahit acts unresponsive to everything Sibel does, but as time goes by Cahit has a change of heart that opens new doors for them.Distinctly and engagingly directed by European filmmaker F Akin, this finely tuned fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the two main characters' viewpoints, draws an involving, violent and painfully beautiful portrayal of an unconventional and dangerously passionate relationship between a German man of Turkish descent whom is doing his utmost to detach himself from his origins and a German woman of Turkish descent whom is striving to get away from her family and for her independence. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, fine cinematography by Swiss cinematographer Rainer Klausmann and production design by production designer Tamo Kunz, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about cultural clash, grief, interpersonal relations, identity and love, depicts two intertwining and internal studies of character and contains a great score by German composer Alexander Hache and American musician Maceo Parker.This valiant, heartfelt and afflicting drama from the early 2000s which is set in Turkey and Germany and where a marriage creates a life-altering human connection, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, efficient continuity, use of music which emphasizes its poignant atmosphere and the unflinching and expressive acting performances by German actor of Turkish descent Birol Ünel and German actress of Turkish descent Sibel Kekilli in her debut feature film role. An emotionally excruciating and compassionately narrated love-story which gained, among several other awards, the Golden Bear and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 54th Berlin Film Festival in 2004, the award for Best European Film and the People's Choice Award for Best European Director at the 17th European Film Awards in 2004 and the NSFC Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 40th National Society of Film Critics Awards in 2006.

You get to see two totally hapless characters in this movie. Sibel comes from a traditional Turkish family. She wants to break loose, she enjoy her life to the fullest. She wants to drink, sleep around, use drugs etc. While Cahit is an empty bottle collector who is very unhappy with life.When Sibel meets Cahit in a hospital, she asks him if he could marry her. Cahit says no, then he wants to know the reason. She says, they would marry but will not have any physical relationship. She just wants to go away from her family. They get married. But after some time, they start to love each other and this love becomes the very reason for their devastation. But in the end it turns out that, this love changes both of them completely. One thing I've learned from this movie is that love can change your life totally. Only love can do impossible things possible. The love between Sibel and Cahit becomes a reason for destroying both of their lives. But this love becomes the only reason to make them better human beings. Sibel kekilli was a porn star before she did this film. She has done a fabulous job in this film along with her opposite actor. This wonderful actress has been pulled out of the porn industry by the director and given a fine actress to the film industry. This movie is very powerful and I give it 8/10.