Head-On

This is an ugly yet riveting sort of emotional and moral car crash of a movie, in which two Turkish Germans living in Hamburg meet at a psychiatric clinic after attempting suicide. Cahit (Birol Ünel) is a greasy, longhaired, alcoholic widower in his 40s who survives by picking up empty bottles and cans at a concert hall. Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) is a pretty and much younger wild child in a conservative Muslim family. She begs Cahit to marry her so she can escape her devout relatives and dive deeply into partying and casual sex with strangers. He reluctantly agrees, and their life begins spinning out of control when they find themselves falling in love with each other. This film about pain, promiscuity, jealousy and honor is strafed with graphic sex and spiked with the recklessness of its human time bombs.