The movie starts off with a Turkish singing group at the edge of the water in what appears to be Istanbul. After a story telling song from the group the movie goes into a night club where a band has just finished playing. It is here where we first meet our main character Cahit Tomruk (Birol Unel). Cahit is picking up all the bottles on the floor at the club, that is his job. After Cahit is done working he goes to a local bar and gets thrown out because he starts fighting with another man after this man calls him names. The bartender knows Cahit by name and after he's done throwing him out he tells Cahit to go home. Belligerently drunk Cahit drives home and contemplates his life. After driving out of a tunnel Cahit sees a wall and decides to hit the gas and slams right into it. The next shot of Cahit is of him going to a psychologist for a check up; Cahit is in a neck brace. While sitting in the waiting room Cahit notices a beautiful girl (Sibel Kekilli) looking at him, when they call his name to go in the girl perks up. Inside Cahit and the doctor talk about his suicide attempt. Cahit ends up leaving in a bad mood and as soon as walks out of the office the girl approaches him and asks him to marry her, Cahit looks at her strange and tells her to fuck off. Later Cahit sees the girl and her family at the dining facilities; it appears that Cahit is in some sort of rehabilitation center. The girls family, especially her brother (Cem Akin) and father (Demir Gokgol), are angry at her for her attempted suicide, apparently it is not her first. Her brother warns her not to do anything stupid again because if anything happens to their father, he'll kill her. Her mother (Aysel Iscan) consoles her. Later on a walk the girl catches up with Cahit and introduces herself as Sibel. Sibel gets Cahit to escape from the center and go to a nearby bar. At the bar Sibel and Cahit talk about why one another were at the center, Sibel tells Cahit of how her brother once broke her nose when he caught her holding a boys hand. Sibel asks Cahit to marry her again and he tells her she's fucked up in the head. Sibel gets angry and breaks a wine bottle and cuts herself across the arm, Cahit gets up and immediately ties something around her arm and takes her out of the bar with him. They end up catching a bus to the hospital, on the ride they discuss why Sibel wants to get married. Sibel wants to get married because it is the only way to escape her family and they will only let her marry a Turkish man. She tells Cahit that their marriage will be more like a roommate relationship; she'll cover any and every expense. Cahit is fighting it the whole time but you can see him start to contemplate it. The bus driver hearing of their plan pulls over and kicks both of them out. Next the same Turkish band and scene from the beginning of the movie comes back and sings another song. After, Cahit is shown by himself in the dump that is his apartment. Next Cahit is shown talking to his best friend Guven (Guven Kirac) about the whole marriage idea. Guven thinks it is the worst idea ever and warns Cahit not to do it. Cahit is then shown clean shaven and dressed up in his best suit and Guven is pretending to be his uncle when they go meet with Sibel's family. While meeting with Sibel's family Cahit is grilled by both Yilmaz (the brother) and Yunus (the father). Guven does his best to deflect their aggressive behavior. In the kitchen Sibel and her mother talk about Cahit, Sibel's mother has a little trouble with their age difference and Cahit's demeanor. Sibel's father finally gives his blessing. Soon after the wedding is underway. Sibel is shown picking up her cousin, Selma(Meltum Cumbul), from the airport. She will be the maid of honor. Cahit and Sibel go to city hall with Guven and Selma as their witnesses and get married. While signing the license it is discovered that Cahit is a widower, much to Sibel's surprise. They are shown arguing about it as they leave city hall. Next they arrive in a hall and have a big Turkish wedding reception. When they get back to Cahit's apartment and his taking her across the threshold, Sibel's asks Cahit what his wife's name was. This infuriates Cahit because he told her not to bring it up again and he throws Sibel out and leaves her on the steps. After a while Sibel gets up and goes to the bar that's around the corner, she ends up talking the barkeeper into taking her home for the night and steal the bride. The next day when walking back to Cahit's place she contemplates leaving with her cousin to Istanbul but ultimately decides to stay with Cahit. She turns his apartment into a livable place. Next Cahit is shown at a bar and starts talking to his friend Maren (Catrin Striebeck) and ends up sleeping with her. After the sex he asks Maren if she can give a job to his roommate Sibel in her hair salon. Sibel is hired by Maren as a hair stylist. One night Sibel talks Cahit into taking her to a club. At the club Sibel meets a guy and goes home with him, she even tells Cahit she's going go get laid and to not wait up for her. Cahit goes home bitter, and gets drunk and passes out. In the morning he goes to her room and lays on her bed and smells her pillow, it seems that Cahit is starting to like Sibel. The next scene is more of the Turkish band. Next it shows Sibel and Cahit go to Sibel's cousin's house(not Selma's) to hang out with her cousins and brother. The women sit around and gossip while the men play some sort of dominoes. During the domino game some cousins get heated with Cahit because of the things he says, mostly about how they should be sleeping with their own wives instead of going out and finding whores. Sibel and Cahit leave and Yilmaz (Sibel's brother) comes out and calls Cahit. Yilmaz confronts Cahit on not being the manager at the club but the bottle picker upper. Yilmaz asks why he lied and Cahit replies that he had to in order to be able to marry Sibel, and he only lied because he really loves her. After the cousins house Sibel and Cahit go to a local bar where Cahit gets so drunk he passes out and Sibel leaves with another man. Maren comes and takes Cahit home with her and they have sex. The next night Sibel prepares a nice home cooked meal for Cahit. During dinner Sibel talks of how her mother has been hassling her about grandchildren, Cahit tells Sibel they should make her mother some(half jokingly). Sibel takes it as a joke and tells Cahit she'll just tell her mother he is impotent plus it will be a good reason for a divorce. Cahit gets mad and they both go their separate ways for the night. Later that night Cahit goes to the club Sibel said she was going to be at. Cahit has a little trouble with the bouncer who refuses to let him in until Sibel comes out and brings Cahit in. In the club a group of guys beat up Cahit when he tries to stop one of them from hitting on Sibel. Sibel cleans up Cahit outside of the club and they go home. At home the two start getting intimate, but right before they begin to have sex Sibel stops Cahit because if they do have sex the marriage will have been consummated, and they really will be man and wife. The next day at the work Cahit tells Guven that he really is in love, this upsets Guven. Cahit even gets up on stage and dances with the band he's so happy. At Sibel's work she and Maren talk about Cahit's first wife, Katherine. It gets out that Maren and Cahit have sex, this really upsets Sibel and she storms out. Sibel goes to a fair by herself and rides some rides, while walking she buys a giant cookie that says I love you on it; she takes it home and places it on Cahit's pillow. At the same time Cahit is at a bar getting smack talked by Nico(Stefan Gebelhoff), one of Sibel's former lovers who just found out she was married and is upset about it. Cahit just sits there and takes it in silence until finally he turns around and just cracks Nico with a glass ashtray, it kills Nico. Right as Cahit hovers over Nico to check if he is alive, Sibel walks in. Sibel then runs home and cuts herself length ways down her arm. The next day it is in the papers that Cahit killed Nico because his wife had slept with him, it also comes out that Nico wasnt the only one. Sibel's father sees the paper and begins to burn all of Sibel's pictures, he disowns her. When Sibel walks out of the hospital her brother is waiting for her outside, she sees him and begins to run away. She eventually runs all the way to Guven's house and hides out there for a while. Next Sibel visits Cahit in jail and promises to wait for him. Next scene the band in Istanbul sings another song. Next Sibel is shown on a flight to Istanbul, now with much shorter hair. Selma gets her a job as a cleaning lady at the hotel she manages. Sibel hates it, waking up early, cleaning, and the same routine over and over. One night Sibel decides to diverge from her usual walk home and goes to a bar. She asks the bartender where she can get some drugs, he asks what kind and she says whatever. The bartender takes Sibel home and gives her opium. He talks her into moving in with him. She tells Selma about her moving and Selma tries to stop her. Sibel yells at Selma and accuses Selma of trying to make her like her, and says the reason her husband left is because she is working all the time, Selma slaps Sibel for saying such. Sibel moves in with the bartender and works at the bar and starts to party like crazy. One night she party's so hard that she passes out on the bar floor, after everyone has left the bar the bartender rapes an unconscious Sibel. A little later he kicks her out and on her way home she gets beat up by some guys who harassed her. She continues to keep getting up after each beating and talking back until finally one of the guys stabs her and they all run away and leave her for dead. Soon after a taxi pulls up and sees Sibel lying there, he picks her up and presumably takes her to the hospital. Next Band and Scene again, except now it is noticeable that time is passing in the scene. In the beginning it looked like morning while now it shows dusk. After that Cahit is shown to get out of jail, Guven picks him up. Cahit tells Guven he plans to go to Istanbul to be with Sibel. Guven tries to talk him out of it; to forget her. Cahit says she is the only reason he is still alive. Guven gives him a bunch of money he has saved up so Cahit can go to Istanbul. Cahit goes to Istanbul to Selma's hotel, which it looks like she now owns. Selma tells Cahit that Sibel has a boyfriend and a child and she's happy so to leave her alone. Cahit waits at a little hotel and finally one day Sibel calls him, she arranges to come to his hotel and see him. She spends a couple days with him and they consummate the marriage, again and again... and again. They plan to go to Mersin, the city of Cahit's birth. Cahit tells Sibel he has bought her and her daughter tickets to go, she agrees. The day comes and Sibel stands up Cahit. She is shown at her home with her baby and boyfriend. Cahit decides to get on the bus and go alone. The movie ends with the group singing a song against the Istanbul scene.

Orig. title:

Gegen die Wand / Head-On / Duvara karsi

Genre: Drama, Romance

Directed by: Fatih Akin

Starring: Birol Ünel (Cahit), Güven Kiraç (Seref), Zarah McKenzie (Barfrau in der Fabrik), Stefan Gebelhoff (Nico), Catrin Striebeck (Maren), Francesco Fiannaca (Mann am Tresen)

Screenplay: Fatih Akin

Country: Germany, Turkey

Year: 2004

Score: 79 %