Crossing The Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul

Crossing The Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul 8pm Tuesday 19.09.06

Dir: Fatih Akin Germany 2005 92 minutes CLUB

Alexander Hacke (of the German avant-garde band Einstürzende Neubauten) first came into contact with the city and its music while producing the score for the movie Head-On. A collector of musical styles and an experimenter with sound, Hacke roams the streets of Istanbul with his mobile recording studio and 'magic mike' to assemble an inspired portrait of Turkish music.

His aim is to expose western ears to the broadest possible spectrum of Turkish music, ranging from modern electronic sounds, rock and hip-hop, right down to classical 'Arabesque' music. Hacke wanders through an alien, contradictory, lively, and seductive world, collecting impressions and tracks, drifting along in the unstoppable stream of this mega city of myriad facets. But no hard drive or film can do justice to the diversity and overwhelming force of musical and visual impressions this city generates. With this experience he finally returns home, a musical treasure in his baggage, which now needs to be sifted and presented to the world. The city's Europe-meets-Asia cross-cultural polyphony is evidenced by its dynamic hip-hop, psych-rock and classical Turkish music scenes. The archive footage is great, clichés are destroyed, and Kurdish sounds - forbidden during the 1980s - are joyously saluted. © The Daily Telegraph

Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage and began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994. In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, Sensin - You're The One! (Sensin - Du bist es!), followed by Weed (Getuerkt, 1996). His first full-length feature film, Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos, 1998), won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Director) in 1998. His other films include: In July (Im Juli, 2000), Wir haben vergessen zurueckzukehren (2001), Solino (2002), and Head-On (Gegen die Wand, 2003), the Berlinale Golden Bear-winner and winner of the German and European Film Awards.