Truly Dreadful Film

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is "Chiko", a German movie from soon 10 years ago that was written and directed by Özgür Yildirim and stars Denis Moschitto as the title character. Now you will probably say that you have never heard of these two and I cannot blame you to be honest. This is quite a shame though that they are not connected to any other great film as their efforts for this one here were simply outstanding. At least, supporting actor Moritz Bleibtreu is among Germany's most known for a truly long time. And this film was produced by Faith Akin, a household name as well. You can certainly see Akkin's influence on the film if you know a bit about him and his works. "Chiko" known no taboos: sex, death, drug abuse, graphic violence. Now many films only include these to be as shocking and controversial as possible, to have people talk about the movie. Not so this one. It all works very well in the context of the plot. Nothing in here ever feels included just for the sake of it. And it concerns everybody here. Everybody gets their fair share, especially the good ones. Life's not fair guys, movies shouldn't be either. Happy endings are for other works."Chiko" is a fairly short movie, does not even come close to the 90-minute mark, even with credits, at least in the version I saw. And that is perfectly fine. I prefer short films with great entertainment value from start to finish and a compelling story over movies that are stretched for 10 or even 20 minutes in order to grant a longer viewing, but don't have the material or story for it. You will be moved by watching "Chiko", you will be touched, entertained and surprised by the action. It is a truly positive surprise. You don't find that brave approach by Yildirim very often in other German films. Don't worry about the Turkish background of many characters in here. There is (hardly) no Turkish language in here, so you will understand everything fine without subtitles if you are fluent in German. So what are you waiting for. If you have a chance to see it, do not miss out under any circumstance. Highly recommended.

The performances are very good, as is each scene taken by itself. The story is completely predictable, including the end, which I also found frankly unbelievable. The whole hodge-podge of conflicted feelings about ethic identity reminded me of "Once Were Warriors," which was about a violent Maori community in New Zealand. At least that movie acknowledged that the male craziness had a partial source in poverty and racism (without excusing it). Chiko doesn't admit much of anything about Germany - the early parts of the film are a kind of "rebels without a cause." At least for me, steeped in the race relations of English-speaking countries plus France, this film self-pathologized Turkish-German males and sensationalized their emotions in a way I didn't find very insightful. But on the level of production and acting, it was at least an 8.

The director is very clearly influenced by Scorsese and other crime movies from the USA. You could call it his "Mean Streets". Bare in mind that this is the first feature length movie he did (I'm sure many will follow).Produced by Faith A., you can also see his influence (his first movie "Kurz and Schmerzlos", a sort of translation as summary line above, literally it means, short and painless) in this movie. It's a really good movie, not without faults though. Violence and swearing don't count as faults though. As some cinema-goers stated they didn't like the violence in the movie, but I'd like to disagree. The violence isn't as explicit as it could be. But violence is needed in a picture/movie like this, to ground it.Far away from a masterpiece this is still a good addition to the crime-thriller.

Berlinale was full of surprises this year. The festival program was read through again and again, but still the selection of films was difficult like before, randomness was the easiest way, so my pre-made film list looked quite different at the end. In the Panorama section of the festival, I came across Özgür Yildirim's feature film debut Chiko, produced by Faith Akin. His name created an urge to see the film as I am deeply interested in the Transnational German Cinema.Özgür Yildirim is a young director from Hamburg. He tells a dark story about loyalty, friendship, rage, revenge, drugs, passion and alienation in a youth gang in Hamburg. The main character Isa Cakiroglu (Denis Moschitto) is called Chiko by his friend circle in Hamburg. This circle is made up of young people with migration background, speaking the famous sociolect. They like action, excitement, fame, expensive cars and especially power. Of course, money is the key in order to get the things they dream of. Money is power, money is respect.It is quite clear that Özgür Yildirim was inspired by films like Scarface, Goodfellas and Reservoir dogs. „Chiko" has a high tempo; it proceeds too quickly without characterization of figures and ends like other films of that genre. Furthermore, the film uses too many clichés about young immigrants, which the audience from this side of the world apparently enjoys.Still, Denis Moschitto fits very well with his own charm and masculinity; Volkan Özcan as the loser one and Reyhan Sahin are very promising as new faces. Moritz Bleibtreu is fascinating as usual.In the discussion after the premiere at the Berlinale; Özgür Yildirim, Volkan Özcan and some of the crew were on the stage to answer the questions. The director is a smart, enthusiastic, witty person. The overall reaction of the audience was positive; people enjoyed the funny dialogues. A person in the second row came up with the idea that violence in the film may cause more violence among the young people. The "violence" theme and especially violence among young people with migration background is quite popular nowadays. Do such films really have a negative effect on young people? The answer came from one of the back rows: These guys are not presented as heroes to be admired; why should anyone be bothered seeing such nice, hot guys on the screen? Public premiere tickets of Chiko at the Zoo Palast were sold out quickly and the film created a lot of excitement among the audience. To my mind, it is enough reason to go and see this film.