Fatih Akın

Fatih Akın

Akın in 2009
Born 25 August 1973
Hamburg, West Germany
Occupation Film director, screenwriter and producer
Years active 1995 – present

Fatih Akın (born 25 August 1973) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer of Turkish descent.[1][2]

Personal life

Akın was born in 1973 in Hamburg to parents of Turkish ethnicity.[3] He attended the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg to study visual communications and graduated in 2000.

Fatih Akın has been married since 2004 to German-Mexican actress Monique Obermüller and lives in Hamburg-Altona, where he also grew up.[2] His brother, Cem Akın is an actor.

Work

Akın made his debut as director of a full length film as early as 1998 with Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos), which brought him the "Bronze Leopard" award at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and the "Pierrot", the Bavarian Film Award for Best New Director in Munich the same year. Since then he has directed feature films such as Im Juli (In July) in 2000, We forgot to go back (Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren) in 2001 and Solino' in 2002. His fourth work, Head-On (Gegen die Wand), starring Sibel Kekilli, was a major success in 2004 and received several prizes, among them the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival and the "Best Film" and the "Audience Award" at the 2004 European Film Awards.

In 2005 he directed a documentary about the Istanbul music scene, Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, which includes musicians such as Ceza, Sezen Aksu, Aynur Doğan and Brenna MacCrimmon. It is narrated by a member of a German experimental band Einstürzende Neubauten, Alexander Hacke, who also produced music for Head-On.

Fatih Akin presenting his film 'Soul Kitchen' at the 2010 International Film Festival of India

In 2007, Akın's The Edge of Heaven, a German-Turkish cross-cultural tale of loss, mourning and forgiveness, won the prize for best screenplay at the 60th Cannes Film Festival in 2007.[4][5] On October 24, 2007, the same film was awarded the first edition of the LUX prize for European cinema by the European Parliament.[6]

His most recent film is the comedy Soul Kitchen (2009). He has said he chose this more light-hearted film because he needed a break after making the "tough" films Head-On and The Edge of Heaven before making his next planned film The Devil. "But", he says, "now I feel ready to finish the trilogy".[7]

In 2012 his documentary film Polluting Paradise was screened in the Special Screenings section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[8][9]

His upcoming film The Cut has been selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.[10][11]

Themes

In Akın's cinema, the lives of German Turks are a recurring theme, such as their struggles and their confusion about two different cultures. In Head-On, two different cultures are presented, the conservative Muslim and Turkish view of Sibel's family, and Sibel's open ideas about sex. Cahit is presented to be somewhat a mixture of these two ideas and cultures, representing a struggling Turk. Akın, on the other hand, has never denied his Turkish roots and even accepted the Cannes award in the name of Turkish cinema.

Political stance

Akın has been criticized for actions that have been interpreted by some[12] as trivializing the Holocaust and was investigated by German police for wearing a t-shirt with a Nazi swastika in place of the letter "S" in the word "BUSH".[13] Akın defended the t-Shirt as "more than mere provocation" and emphasized:[14]

Bush's policy is comparable with that of the Third Reich. I think that under Bush, Hollywood has been making certain films at the request of The Pentagon to normalise things like torture and Guantanamo. I'm convinced the Bush administration wants a third world war. I think they're fascists.
—Fatih Akın

Collaborations

Actors Short Sharp Shock Im Juli Solino Head-On The Edge of Heaven Soul Kitchen The Cut
Cem Akın
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Moritz Bleibtreu
Yes
Yes
Yes
Adam Bousdoukos
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Stefan Gebelhoff
Yes
Yes
Demir Gökgöl
Yes
Yes
Marc Hosemann
Yes
Yes
Mehmet Kurtuluş
Yes
Yes
Yes
Hermann Lause
Yes
Yes
Catrin Striebeck
Yes
Yes
Birol Ünel
Yes
Yes
Yes
İdil Üner
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patrycia Ziółkowska
Yes
Yes
Yes

Awards

Filmography

Year Title Notes Awards
1995 Sensin... You're the One! (German title: Sensin - Du bist es!)
1996 Weed (German title: Getürkt)
1998 Short Sharp Shock (German title: Kurz und schmerzlos) Bronze Leopard at Locarno, Switzerland
Pierrot at Bavarian Film Award for the best young director
2000 Im Juli Original Script
2001 Denk ich an Deutschland - Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren Original Script
2002 Solino Original Script
2004 Head-On (German title: Gegen die Wand, Turkish title: Duvara karşı) Golden Bear at Berlin Film Festival
"Best Film" and "Audience Award" at European Film Awards
2004 Visions of Europe (segment "Die bösen alten Lieder", German title: Europäische Visionen)
2004 Kebab Connection Original Script
2005 Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul Original Script
2007 The Edge of Heaven (German title: Auf der anderen Seite, Turkish title: Yaşamın Kıyısında) Best Director at Golden Orange Film Festival
Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival
LUX prize for European cinema by European Parliament
2008 New York, I Love You
2009 Soul Kitchen Original Script Special Award of the Jury at Venice International Film Festival
2012 Polluting Paradise (German title: Der Müll im Garten Eden)
2014 The Cut

References

  1. ↑ Çağla Karabağ, "Intercultural Encounters in Fatih Akın's Films" in Klaus Roth, Robert Hayden (ed.), Migration In, From, and to Southeastern Europe: Part 1: Historical and Cultural Aspects, Ethnologia Balcanica 13, LIT Verlag Münster, 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-10895-1, p. 181.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Director's Portrait: Fatih Akın – The sun is as much mine as the night". www.german-films.de. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  3. ↑ Kulish, Nicholas (6 January 2008). "A hand that links Germans and Turks". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  4. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: The Edge of Heaven". www.festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
  5. ↑ "Film about abortion takes Cannes' prize". Guardian Unlimited (London). 27 May 2007.
  6. ↑ "And the LUX Prize for European cinema goes to… "Auf der anderen Seite" ("On the Edge of Heaven")". European Parliament. 24 October 2007. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  7. ↑ "At the Movies: Soul Kitchen Interview". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
  8. ↑ "2012 Official Selection". Cannes. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
  9. ↑ "Polluting Paradise: Cannes Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
  10. ↑ "International competition of feature films". Venice. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  11. ↑ "Venice Film Festival Lineup Announced". Deadline. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  12. ↑ "Critics use Nazi symbolism to attack Bush administration". ABC News. 14 August 2006. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  13. ↑ "German movie director investigated for wearing a Swastika". Deutsche Welle. 7 August 2006. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  14. ↑ "Film director in trouble over Swastika t-shirt". Der Spiegel. 7 August 2006. Archived from the original on 2010-02-01. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  15. ↑ "Bayerischer Filmpreis: Promis und Porzellan". Max (German magazine) (in German). Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  16. ↑ "Orden für Riemann und Akin". BZ Berlin (in German). 2010-10-04. Retrieved 2010-10-05.

Bibliography

External links

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