Fatih Akin

Gegen die wand (Head on), Im Juli (In July) and Auf der andered Seite (On the other side)

This is how my watch list looks like of movies made by Fatih Akin. And I like them in the order that i have seen them with Gegen die wand as my fav.

Fatih Akin is a German but with Turkish background ( comparing it with ABCD, it will be GBCT, bad joke anyways). And in his movies as well there is a mix of both German and Turkish cultures. His movies are stories adapted to screen, stories that are unpredictable and move fast.

However, in all of his movies, there are some common traits for which each one of them is a delight to watch. To start with, he uses music a lot especially Turkish music and it is very pleasant to hear. Second, there is atleast one character who will do what he/she feels like doing, with no worry about consequences , about money, security etc. If films are meant to show what we can not do in real life, if they are meant to show our dreams, our fantasies to us, Fatih Akin does exactly that. And its all done in a realistic fashion.

In a story which is unpredictable, there are generally two ways - (a) The viewer is watching everything for the first hand and each development is a revealation to him, and (b) The viewer knows the end but is missing on the "How" part and at every step he hopes that this will be the means to reach the end, sometimes it turns to be true but mostly not.

Fatih used the former technique in his previous films but in "On the other side" he has used the latter technique and he has done it quite brilliantly. He was also awarded screenplay for his depiction at Cannes.


And in all his movies, there is a journey involved, there is self realization, there is past guilt and repentance. There is tradition, religion but with independence going in parallel. In short he makes one of the best fiction drama movies, the kind that i like the best.

His movies are not foreign lang oscar winner level but they have their own beauty and taste. His movies are worth putting in a collection.