Head On & Slacker

These are only lumped together because I watched them around the same time, but interestingly they share an importance: they are both interesting from the point of view of tracing a director's development.

Head-On I went out and bought the day after I saw The Edge of Heaven. The themes of displacement and the uneasy relationship between Germany and Turkey, and the conflicted identities of those born in one but raised in another are present in Head-On as much as they are in The Edge of Heaven, but there's a certain fear perhaps of going too far with them. Maybe not, maybe I'm looking for differences when actually there aren't any. Having said that, I enjoyed The Edge of Heaven more, perhaps for apparently superficial reasons like there being a character who was a lecturer in it or perhaps for deeper, more-difficult-to-enunciate reasons. I think I felt that The Edge of Heaven was more assured, less afraid to tackle big themes. Someone in the Guardian called it daring, whereas Head-On was more tentative.

Slacker I didn't like very much. It looked far too much like an exercise, an experiment, than an actual film. Nevertheless, I'd never considered it in the view of Before Sunrise and Sunset, films I love and which share a similar walking-and-talking aesthetic. But whereas those films are full of the warmth of well-drawn characters, Slacker is empty, almost vacuous. Perhaps it was intended - as a reflection of the characters? - but it doesn't hold up: once you've seen one switch of characters, you've seen them all. You never get to know any of the human beings in the film and in fact the greatest character is the city itself, despite the fact you're never actually told what city it is. Writing that I'm reminded of Gus Van Sant's Elephant, but whereas that film managed to create an entire world simply by wandering its physical parameters, Slacker seems naive, not thought through, as if Richard Linklater had this concept and padded it out.

The Edge Of Heaven

Aka: Auf der anderen Seite (On The Other Side, its original German title)

Made by Fatih Akin (Head-On, Crossing The Bridge) this is a remarkable film, haunting, memorably and superbly made. I knew of Akin as a film-maker who tackles the complex relationship between Turkey (where his family originates) and Germany (where he grew up), but wasn't aware of seeing his films before this one. As it happens, I've seen Crossing the Bridge, a documentary following Alexander Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten as he explores Istanbul's musical melting pot. I got into traditional and contemporary Turkish music off the back of that film and those exotic, comforting sounds accompany this film.

I don't want to give a synopsis, but you can find one here and here.

This film really blew me away. You know those trailers with the trailer-voice-man saying things like "one man's journey to another world" and all that sorta stuff, the stuff they've buthered the Persepolis trailer with in the UK? Well this film is the reason such trailers exist. It tracks the emotional journey of a group of people, connected deeply but not really knowing it, and it also tracks the history of two countries, the history of history really.

Oh just read those two links. They're much better at wording it than me. And see this film. It's out in June on DVD - rent it!

Here's a couple of trailers: