Head On Collision

So, I hope this image turns out. I'm feeling that my blog is lacking some visual pizazz.

As predicted, I prefer to update my blog rather than to complete my final papers. My German teacher extended our paper another day. He shouldn't have done that. Now I have less incentive and am more inclined to other things. And yet, I really should have this paper turned in Thursday, so I can focus on my other finals. The good news: I have almost 2/10 pages. However, they'll probably end up cut out, so that's not as exciting as it sounds. I always write pages over and then cut out all the bs. Probably this time, my paper will just be bs.

Twas my last German cinema meeting. I feel so old, there's only one or two other seniors in class.

We discussed this movie we saw last week, called "Head On." I hope to give it a more thorough review when I have time to give it justice. But, here's the short version: It's a film about Turkish-German identities. The main characters, Sibel and Cahit are destructive, self-injurers. They get married so Sibel can trick her parents out of her traditional style and since, they don't really like each other, they can go around as free agents, sleeping with whomever they wish.

The problem is that they eventually the fall in love. But, since neither character knows who they are, their romance is doomed. Cahit and Sibel are separated and the only place they can be together is in an almost fictional space - Istanbul - a familiar city, but one they have no ties to. Funny thing is, we were having a discussion about the idea of the immigrant returning to the motherland. My class think it's a romantic, perfect solution. I raised my hand and said that it's just too optimistic because the homeland is an idealized, nostalgic idea and not a real place. When you get back home, you will see that you're identity has been permanently changed and that your home is not static, it will have changed as well. At that point, my German teacher proceeded to ask me if I was first-generation, or if my parents had immigrated and what I personally felt about returning home. That was kind of awkward, that whole class just sort of stared at me as he asked me a slew of questions, but he's a nice guy. Coming from another culture, his questions didn't bug me. He said he doesn't think he could return to Germany either.

We also Skype-interviewed the director of a short film called "Fear Eats the Soul." The strange thing was that the director was Iranian and could only speak Persian and German. So my teacher spoke to him in German and then would translate. It was cute because he'd forget who he was talking to and ask the director questions in English and address us in German. I'm not sure where the short film is distributed, but it's an intense viewing experience. It's based on the director's real-life experience as an actor, in this play based on Fassbinder's famous "Ali: Fear Eat the Soul," about prejudice against Turks in Germany. Ironically, on his way to the theatre, the director was the victim of a neo-Nazi hate crime. I'm glad he was able to turn that painful experience into something positive: a film that can teach people about how ridiculous violence is and how wrong our stereotypes are.