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Review

Acclaimed filmmaker Fatih Akin introduces two lost and exceedingly dissatisfied souls who meet as a result of their own separate botched suicide attempts. Newcomer Sibel Kekilli is captivating as Sibel (a fitting name), a young woman desperate to be freed from the strict religious conventions imposed by her family. Sibel manages to convince Cahit, portrayed by the equally intriguing Birol Unel, to marry her. The two enjoy a drunken, sexually promiscuous lifestyle as romantically unattached roommates, until each begins to form feelings for the other. Soon after, obstacles arise that prove to be far more momentous than either had previously encountered. Sibel and Cahit are forced to fight to hold on to the happiness and fulfillment that neither had expected to find. Head-On is one of the most intense, original and highly affecting cinematic love stories to come along in quite some time. Akin has taken a traditional feel-good formula and added rational perspective, gritty violence and harrowing emotion. He displays both the immense pleasure that is derived from love and the brutal realities of the film’s uncompromising and often frighteningly realistic contemporary urban setting. It is through this combination that he is able to question what it means to be in love as well as present the possibility that love is simply an absurd and unrealistic notion. A thoughtful, well-crafted and thoroughly absorbing work, Head-On should not be missed.

 -- Robert O'Neill