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ANKARA: With "The Cut", Fatih Akin Introduces a Strong Political Ton

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  • ANKARA: With "The Cut", Fatih Akin Introduces a Strong Political Ton

    Daily Sabah, Turkey
    Sept 5 2014


    WITH 'THE CUT,' FATIH AKIN INTRODUCES A STRONG POLITICAL TONE TO HIS FILM CAREER

    Kaya Genç


    I never expected Fatih Akın to make a big budget film about a taboo
    political subject. A German film director of Turkish descent, Akın's
    20-year-long film career provided examples of his Terry Gilliam-like
    imagination, as well as his acute interest in love affairs between
    passionate individuals. When I read Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw's
    review of his new film "The Cut" ("a heartfelt, if soapy Zhivago-ish
    quest epic") I remembered those first impressions. To me, love and
    passion are Akın's areas of expertise. His film scripts,
    cinematography and even the performances he manages to extract from
    his actors, all take their power from Akın's continuous focus on
    passionate feelings and on love.

    Despite its strong engagement with a big political subject, "The Cut"
    is also a typical Akın film, perhaps a composite of his previous work.
    It tells the story of Nazaret Manugyan, a blacksmith from Mardin, who
    is forced to leave his hometown in 1915 when members of the Committee
    of Union and Progress executed a plan to deport all Ottoman Armenians
    from the empire. Manugyan, played by Tahar Rahim of "A Prophet" fame,
    travels to Aleppo, Beirut, Cuba, Florida and Minnesota; in the second
    half of the film he struggles to find his daughters.
    Some critics took issue with the soapy tone of "The Cut," as well as
    its linguistic choices (Armenian characters speak English in the film;
    the rest of the cast speak in their own tongues). Nevertheless, the
    film, which competes for the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival, is a
    testament to the scope and ambition of Akın's film career.

    Born in 1973 to Turkish parents, Akın entered Hamburg's prestigious
    Hochschule für bildende Künste at the age of 21 and studied in the
    visual communication department.While at school, he started working
    for the Hamburg- based film company, Wüste. Famous for its German-
    Turkish films, including Buket Alakus's "Anam" and Anno Saul's Kebab
    Connection," the company served as an artistic home to up and coming
    filmmakers on the lookout for work experience.

    Hochschule für bildende Künste's faculty included the eminent film
    director Wim Wenders. In 2005, only five years after Akın's
    graduation, the German magazine Der Spiegel described how "the German
    film industry has been collectively holding its breath to see if Fatih
    Akın would turn out to be the next Wim Wenders." Deutsche Welle was
    equally excited about the rise of this new filmmaker: "After Wim
    Wenders and Tom Tykwer, Fatih Akin ranks as the third most well-known
    film director in Germany," it announced.

    Although he owed this fame to "Head On" (2004), which won him the
    Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Akın had already made a name
    for himself with "In July" (2000), a road movie that perfectly
    exemplifies the earlier Akın. He cast Moritz Bleibtreu as Daniel, a
    young teacher who buys a Mayan ring from a girl at the flea market
    before finding himself on the road the following day, struggling to
    find "a girl with a sun."

    Bleibtreu also acted in Akın's 2002 film "Solino," about an Italian
    family who opened the first pizza restaurant in the northwestern
    German city Duisburg. The peace of their family life is unsettled when
    two brothers fall in love with the same girl. This "family epic" was
    released at a time when other Turkish directors, like Ferzan Ã-zpetek,
    were producing enjoyable art-house hits, much to the delight of
    European audiences.

    For his next projects Akın chose to deal with more difficult and
    politically loaded subjects, including immigration, cultural
    alienation and the oppressive role of the family. Cahit, the
    40-something protagonist of "Head On" deals with his German existence
    and Turkish past in a violent and yet inspiring manner. Born in
    Mersin, he leads a destructive life in Hamburg where he meets and
    falls in love with Sibel who experiences immense pressure from her
    Turkish family.

    At the opening of the film, Cahit and Sibel have both attempted
    suicide. Later they travel to Istanbul, stay at the Grand Hotel de
    Londres in Beyoglu and begin new lives.The realism of "Head On"
    continued with Akın's similarly acclaimed film, "Crossing the Bridge:
    The Sound of Istanbul," which showed his gifts as a documentary
    filmmaker.

    The film unsettled many of the European (and more particularly,
    German) assumptions about Turkey's "inherent backwardness" as a
    predominantly Muslim country. Akın showed how different cultures
    coexisted in the country, where artists shared a sense of alienation
    from the centurylong policies of state-imposed uniformity. Istanbul
    was as exciting as Berlin, even if German conservatives chose to
    believe otherwise. I still remember the Istanbul premiere of Akın's
    2009 film, "Soul Kitchen," a comedy about a shabby Greek restaurant
    frequented by some of the city's most interesting characters. I was
    surprised to see him employ a much lighter tone. But Akın had also
    started to be more outspoken about politics. He boycotted the Swiss
    premiere of "Soul Kitchen" to protest the country's referendum vote to
    ban the construction of minarets. When asked to explain the reason
    behind his protest, Akın said the ban contradicted his belief in the
    "harmonious co-existence of peoples." It will be interesting to see
    Akın's cinematic search for harmony in a career that increasingly
    focuses on the more political and tragic aspects of our existence.

    http://www.dailysabah.com/cinema/2014/09/06/with-the-cut-fatih-akin-introduces-a-strong-political-tone-to-his-film-career

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