Fatih Akin’s raw, ultra-realistic drama tracks the relationship between two disaffected Turks in Hamburg who enter into a marriage of convenience and find their lives irrevocably altered. We first encounter 40-year-old Cahit (Birol Ünel) in the midst of a drinking binge that ends with him crashing his car into a wall. In a psychiatric ward, he meets the vivacious Sibel (Sibel Kekilli) who, desperate to escape her dominating parents — she’s already slashed her wrists — proposes marriage (non-sexual). He agrees, cleans up his act, convinces her parents that he’s on the up-and-up and witnesses his new pseudo-wife embrace all the freedoms of modern Germany — including taking a different man home with her most nights. Then things begin to change. Akin’s knowledge of Turkish ex-pat culture results in a keenly observed drama that eschews the conventional in favor of the psychologically true. He has fashioned a tough-minded film sure to stay with you long after the lights go up. Winner of the Golden Bear for best picture at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival and Best Picture, European Film Awards. — PSIFF 2005