Fatih Akin - German director, screenwriter, producer and actor, winner of several awards for his work. The article will focus on his career and best work.
Short biography and first works
Fatih was born in Hamburg in 1973 in a family of Turkish emigrants. Fatih Akin began filming films back in 1995, and the first of them was the short film “Sessin, this is you!”, For eleven minutes showing how the young Turk is trying to look after the girl of his dreams. And just three years later, the director shot the full-length thriller “Fast and Without Pain” (1998) about three friends who dream of ending crime and starting a normal life. For his work, he received two awards defining him as the best young director.
This inspired him to pursue a career. First came the adventure melodrama “The Aztec Sun” (2000), then the comedy drama “Solino” (2002), and a year later the drama “Head on the Wall”, for which Fatih received the highest award of the Berlin festival - “Golden Bear”. And having shown the film “On the Other Side of the Bosphorus” (2005) at the Cannes Film Festival, he received a prize for the best script.
Now the filmography of Fatih Akin includes about twenty projects. This is not much, but given the success some of his films achieve, the list is still growing. In the meantime, focus on his best works.
“Quickly and without pain” (1998)
In his first film, director Fatih Akin tells the story of three friends: Serb Bobby, Turk Gebrail and Greek Costa. All of them are in one way or another connected with crime, but in their hearts they dream of a different future. True, the present is clearly hinting that their plans will never come true.
But, as it turns out, not everything is so hopeless. After all, one of them manages to change his fate - he leaves Hamburg and moves to Istanbul, where he begins a new life. The question is, can the rest even come so close to fulfilling their dreams?
Solino (2002)
In the drama “Solino, ” Fatih Akin tells the story of an Italian family living in a town called Solino. Now Romano, Rosa and their two sons, Gigi and Giancarlo, are trying to settle in Germany. They open a pizzeria, which is named after their hometown. True, unlike her husband, Rosa still cannot get used to the new environment.
Brothers, however, are wildly delighted with life in Germany, because completely new opportunities for entertainment are open here, one of which is smoking marijuana. They are always together and ready to support each other. They have everything in a brotherly way, at least until there is a girl who likes both. From this moment, the differences begin between two close people.
“Head against the wall” (2003)
The film, for the creation of which Fatih Akin received the Golden Bear and the Fipresci Prize, tells the story of an oriental beauty named Sybil. The girl lives in Hamburg, but her Muslim background does not allow her to fully enjoy Western life. She would like to go to clubs and meet with guys, but her parents do not give her such an opportunity. Therefore, she decides to get married in order to finally escape from the family.
For the role of her fiance, the girl chooses Jahit Tomruk from Mersin, who recently got into a major car accident. At first, they agree to simply live together and establish their own destiny. But gradually they get closer, and then fall in love. Of course, you can just be happy for them, but there are still many challenges ahead of the guys.
“Soulful Kitchen” (2010)
The main character of the film Zinos Kazantsakis is the owner of a small restaurant in Hamburg. He cooks food on his own, because it is because of this that he always has visitors. The restaurant, of course, does not bring much profit, but he really likes this place. Therefore, the guy did not leave with his girlfriend when she decided to work in China.
But parting with her was not his only problem. Recently, while dragging heavy things, he injured his back, which caused him to temporarily lose his ability to stand by the stove. And the new cook only frightened the customers with his cooking. In addition, he had to arrange his brother so that he could leave the prison chambers during the day. But the worst thing is that an old acquaintance of Zinos laid eyes on his institution in order to use it for his own purposes.
