Head-On

Head-On (Gegen die Wand, 2004) is a raw German-Turkish romance you can watch online on iFILM. Fatih Akin's film, winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin, opens with Sibel, a young woman from a strict Turkish family in Hamburg, who slits her wrists rather than keep living under her brother's rules.

In the psychiatric clinic she meets Cahit, a wrecked Turkish-German man twice her age, drowning in cocaine and grief for his dead wife. She proposes a deal: marry me on paper so my family backs off, and we'll each do as we please. The arrangement gives Sibel her wild nightlife and Cahit a roommate he barely tolerates. Then real feeling sneaks in, and neither of them knows how to hold it. Jealousy, a killing, prison, and a flight to Istanbul follow.

Sibel Kekilli, in her first lead role, throws herself at the part without a shred of vanity, while a Turkish ensemble playing on the banks of the Golden Horn breaks the story into chapters like a Greek chorus. This isn't a tidy date-night pick — it's love as collision. Stream Head-On (2004) online on iFILM.