Fatih Akın

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Fatih Akın

Akin with the Golden Bear
Born August 25, 1973
Hamburg, Germany
Occupation Film director
Years active 1995 - present

Fatih Akın (August 25, 1973 in Hamburg, Germany) is a German film director.

Contents

[edit] Education

In 1994 he attended Hamburg's College of Fine Arts to study visual communications and graduated in 2000.

[edit] Work

Akın made his debut as director of a full length film already in 1998 with Kurz und schmerzlos (Short Sharp Shock), which brought him the award "Bronze Leopard" at Locarno, Switzerland and the "Pierrot", the Bavarian Film Award for the best young director in Munich the same year. Since then he has directed features like Im Juli (In July) in 2000, Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren (We forgot to go back) in 2001 and Solino in 2002. His fourth work, Gegen die Wand (Head-On) with Sibel Kekilli as main actress was a great 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 Istanbul music scene, named Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, which includes musicians from Ceza to Sezen Aksu to Aynur 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.

In 2006, he was investigated by German police after wearing a T-Shirt with a Nazi swastika, intending to equate the George W. Bush administration with the Third Reich.

In 2007, Akin'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 Annual 2007 Cannes Film Festival.[1] On October 24, 2007, the same film was awarded the first edition of the LUX prize for European cinema by the European Parliament.

[edit] Themes

In Fatih Akın's cinema, the lives of German Turks are a recurring theme. 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. Akin, on the other hand, has never denied his Turkish roots and even accepted the Cannes award in the name of Turkish cinema.[2]

[edit] Political controversy

Akin has been criticized for actions that have been interpreted by some [3] 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". [4] Akin defended the T-Shirt as being "more than mere provocation" and emphasized: "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." [5]

[edit] Awards

[edit] 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)
2004

Visions of Europe

 (segment "Die bösen alten Lieder", German title: Europäische Visionen)
2005

Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
  • Original Script
2006

Soul Kitchen
  • Original Script
2007

The Edge of Heaven

 (German title: Auf der anderen Seite, Turkish title: Yaşamın Kıyısında)
2008

New York, I Love You

 (announced)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Doland, Angela. "Film About Abortion Takes Cannes' Prize". Guardian Unlimited, May 27, 2007.
  2. ^ European Parliament News October 24, 2007
  3. ^ Foxman, Abraham. (National director of the Anti-Defamation League) "Critics Use Nazi Symbolism to Attack Bush Administration". ABC News, Aug 14, 2006.
  4. ^ DW Staff (tt). "German Movie Director Investigated for Wearing a Swastika". Deutsche Welle (DW) World, Aug 07, 2006.
  5. ^ cro/spiegel/dpa. "Film Director in Trouble Over Swastika T-Shirt". Der Spiegel, Aug 07, 2006.

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
Nuri Bilge Ceylan		 Golden Orange Award for Best Director
2007
for Yaşamın Kıyısında		 Succeeded by
incumbent


v • d • e
Golden Orange Award for Best Director
Halit Refiğ (1964) · Atıf Yılmaz (1965) · Memduh Ün (1966) · Yılmaz Duru (1967) · Yılmaz Duru (1968) · Ertem Eğilmez (1970) · Muzaffer Aslan (1971) · Atıf Yılmaz (1972) · Nejat Saydam (1973) · Ömer Lütfi Akad (1974) · Şerif Gören (1975) · Atıf Yılmaz (1976) · Zeki Ökten (1977) · Atıf Yılmaz (1978) · Erden Kıral (1981) · Ömer Kavur (1982) · Zeki Ökten (1983) · Atıf Yılmaz (1984) · Sinan Çetin (1985) · Atıf Yılmaz (1986) · Ömer Kavur (1987) · Ömer Kavur (1988) · Halit Refiğ (1989) · Halit Refiğ (1990) · Yavuz Özkan (1991) · Tunç Okan (1992) · Erden Kıral (1993) · Yavuz Özkan (1994) · Canan Gerede (1995) · Tunç Başaran (1996) · Ferzan Özpetek (1997) · Ömer Kavur (1998) · Nuri Bilge Ceylan (1999) · Derviş Zaim (2000) · Zeki Demirkubuz (2001) · Nuri Bilge Ceylan (2002) · Ömer Kavur (2003) · Uğur Yücel (2004) · Kutluğ Ataman (2005) · Nuri Bilge Ceylan (2006) · Fatih Akın (2007)
Persondata
NAME Akın, Fatih
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Film director
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg  Germany
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatih_Ak%C4%B1n"
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