Short Sharp Shock

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.

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.

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".

Why this movie was a failure at the German box-office will always be a mystery to me. Fatih Akin, the director, was obviously influenced by Martin Scorsese's and Brian DePalma's first movies but he didn't try to imitate them. Instead he made one of the first movies which truly celebrates the 'Multikulti'-society that Germany has become (At least in the larger cities).

You can't help but like the Turkish, Serbian and Greek protagonists albeit they are criminals. The characters are far too alive and three-dimensional to be seen as stereotypes/cliches thrown in to reinforce prejudices.

To me, KURZ UND SCHMERZLOS was the best German movie of 1998 (Even better than LOLA RENNT) and I recommend it to anyone who likes MEAN STREETS, Matthieu Kassovitz' LA HAINE or the films of Lars Becker. 9 out of 10.

I found it by chance in my library. I nearly forgot it, since the time I taped it off from French ARTE channel. Yes, you can compare it with a Marty Scorcese - MEAN STREETS - like tale. Petty hoodlums in Germany, mostly from immigrant descent: Turkish, Serbian, most of them brutal, violent volks. It is not in the Quentin Tarantino style either, it refuses to copy the new fashion of this period, trying to imitate Tarantino's way of story telling or filming at all costs. It sounds very realistic, the acting more real than life. It grabs your attention and the characters, despite what they are, remain poignant, gripping. Excellent social crime film.