Kurz und schmerzlos

the movie is about a turkish guy who gets out of prison and sees himself tangled up in the same situations that he lived before, with his best friends stealing and dealing, only this time he himself has changed and has a very differentiated view of the daily crime and violence.

the story unfolds with an interesting plot always centering the 3 friends in their daily life and how suddenly their live changes quickly when things go more wrong than they ever did before.

a great job by the director. the pictures are beautiful at the same time very authentic. the story always feels real even though it has a lot of extreme situations in it. the characters move as they are depicted closely and without unnecessary sentiments.

overall an extremly entertaining movie that brings us close foreign cultures from right around the corner.

In the light of Faith Akin's 2004 'Gegen die Wand', 'Kurz und Schmerzlos' is relatively The most impressive point of the movie is the grim poverty which penetrates into the close friendship between Gabriel, Costa, and Bobby. Even though these three members of the Greco-Turkish-Serbian gang have sufficient amount of goodwill and mutual respect for, their inferiority complexes, combined with poverty, have detrimental effects on all of them.

Bobby, hungry for more street respect, starts to work for an Albanian mafioso, and Costa joins his friend reluctantly as an experienced car thief. Gabriel, fresh from jail, tries to stop his two best buddies from joining the thugs. When Gabriel attempts this in his street-smart way, however, he further pushes his two buddies into the hands of the mafia.

As Faith Akin recently reconfirmed with his 2004 movie 'Gegen die Wand', the Turco-German director applies his knowledge about marginal immigrant societies in Germany to his movies. The result is a fascinating, modestly grim, and interesting movies which continue to bring Akin worldwide acclaim and admiration.

There are German films that aren't relationship comedies or delve into recent history. This film is a gangster melodrama, set in the Turkish community of Hamburg Altona. We care about the fates of the colourful, not-always-do-goods, emphasise with their struggle against the life they live. KURZ UND SCHMERZLOS manages to reach a rare quality: it feels "real".

"Kurz und schmerzlos" means as much as "quickly and smoothly" and is a German underground drama by young Turkish film maker Fatih Akin. Shot in the suburbs and industrial area of Hamburg, Akin's home town, it was a big hit in German repertory cinemas in 1999.

The film shows the life and fate of three young foreigners - Turk Gabriel, Greek Costa and Serb Bobby, all of them dreaming of love and money in the bleak surroundings of social welfare, crimes, industry, unemployment and cultural minorities. Of course it won't take long until the friendship of the three outsiders is about to break apart when Gabriel becomes a henchman for a local gangster boss, and a journey through violence and despair begins for all three of them...

There are no special effects, no visual games, there is just pure "adrenaline acting" - except for Ralf Herforth ("Knocking on Heaven's Door") as gangster boss Muhamer, all actors are unknown newcomers, but with a great impact and brilliant performances. There is much realistic violence in it than can be felt in every second, and you really need to watch out for some contemporary American or Japanese underground stuff to find something similar. And the sound track is very good, too.

But the movie shows also the social milieu and the problems of national minorities in a Western country like in the works of British film maker Hanif Kureishi ("My Beautiful Laundrette"). Watch out for this example for great contemporary German cinema, and although "Kurz und schmerzlos" avoids all the visual styling of "Lola rennt", it has the same impact and power like that international box office hit!

Kurz Und Schmerzloz (or Short, Sharp Shock for the English title) from the Turkish writer/director Fatih Akin is a German drama that takes place in Altona, a well known neighbourhood of Hamburg, the westernmost urban borough to be more precise. I've been there several times so I recognized some places which is always enjoyable. The story was also recognizable at times, reminded me my youth years when friendship was the most important thing in the world. It's an interesting drama, easy to follow, and well acted. All foreign and unknown actors to me but they were all very convincing. It's not a high budget movie but it's well made, which proves that you don't always have to have a high budget to make a good movie.