Short and painless

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Movie
Original title Short and painless
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1998
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Fatih Akin
script Fatih Akin
production Daniel Blum ,
Stefan Schubert ,
Ralph Schwingel
music Ulrich Kodjo Wendt , Maya Consuelo Sternel
camera Frank Barbian
cut Andrew Bird
occupation

Short and painless is a crime film from 1998 by director Fatih Akin , who also wrote the screenplay for the film.

action

The film is a story about the friendship of a Turkish-Greek-Serbian gang in Hamburg-Altona . The Turk Gabriel, the Serb Bobby and the Greek Costa have already endured a few dicey situations. Gabriel is paroled from prison shortly before his brother's wedding. During the wedding, Gabriel takes a job as a taxi driver from his brother, and even his concerns about the license withdrawn are talked out of him. While Gabriel has visibly matured through his time in prison, nothing has apparently changed in the lives of his two best friends Bobby and Costa. Bobby has found a friend in Alice, who runs a jewelry atelier called Kismet with Ceyda, with whom he seems to be happy. However, Bobby wants to join the Albanian mafia . Costa is with Gabriel's sister Ceyda and still makes his living from petty thefts and rip-offs. Ceyda finally separates from Costa. When the three friends find Ceyda with their new friend Sven in an alley, a fight breaks out. Something seems to be happening between Gabriel and Bobby's girlfriend Alice, while Bobby concentrates on his career as a mafioso. Bobby meets with the Albanian godfather Muhamer, where he first has to pass a test of courage. Bobby then wants to persuade Costa to join the Mafia as well. Instead, Costa takes a job at the post office that Gabriel has found for him. Bobby is asked by Mohamer to make an arms deal for him . Mohamer invites Bobby and his girlfriend Alice to dinner. When Alice learns while eating that Mohamer runs a brothel, she leaves the restaurant in disgust. She then meets Gabriel in a disco and tells him about her problems with Bobby. Gabriel listens to her and tells her, among other things, about his plans to open a beach café in Turkey. The three friends spend a video evening with Alice. While the three get marijuana from Nejo, Bobby shows his new revolver. Gabriel gets angry about it. Bobby argues with Alice the next morning about the scene at dinner with Mohamer. He also seems jealous of Gabriel and hits her. Alice then throws him out.

When Gabriel then learns about the arms deal through Alice, he goes to a meeting in Muhamer's nightclub to dissuade Bobby. Costa is also present, whom Bobby introduces as the driver. Gabriel is then badly beaten by Muhamer's bodyguards. Costa can get the bodyguards to stop while Bobby just watches. Gabriel feels betrayed by his friends and appears hurt at Alice. After she has treated him, both sleep together. Meanwhile, Bobby and Costa steal Ceyda's friend Sven's car and then drive to the agreed meeting with the arms dealers, who rob the two of them. Bobby and Costa now have neither the weapons nor the money for Muhamer. Bobby gets scared of Muhamer and goes to Alice's apartment to borrow the necessary money from her. Alice won't let him in; Gabriel is with her. Bobby goes on and is discovered by Muhamer and followed by the car. Bobby is caught and then shot with his own revolver. Gabriel and Costa find out about it the next day and want to take revenge on Muhamer. Gabriel gets a gun at home, books the next flight to Istanbul and says goodbye to Alice.

At the same time, Costa got a gun from drug dealer Nejo and says goodbye to Ceyda. Costa ambushes Muhamer alone at the back entrance of a nightclub and shoots him. Mohamer, only slightly injured, pulls out a knife and stabs Costa several times. Finally, Gabriel appears in his taxi after learning about Costa's plan from Ceyda. He drives to Muhamer and finally kills him with a head shot. Costa survived the knife wounds seriously injured. Gabriel decides to go into hiding in Turkey ; he says goodbye to Alice and cannot answer her question if he will ever return.

background

  • The feature film debut of director Fatih Akin, who previously directed three short films, is short and painless .
  • Director Fatih Akin appears in the film as drug dealer Nejo.
  • Fatih Akin's future wife Monique Akin appears as a travel agent in the travel agency, Akin's father plays Gabriel's father.
  • The movie the three friends are watching is They Called It Bone Breaker with Jackie Chan.
  • For the choreography of the fights in the film, Akin worked with the martial artist Emanuel Bettencourt .
  • An original soundtrack and a pure hip-hop CD were released for the film.

Reviews

  • epd Film : “All the different cultural influences and traditions can be felt in Akin's debut feature film. But they are not pushed into the foreground in a striking way, as is usually the case in German films. Akin straightforwardly tells a story of friendship, love and betrayal. He is more interested in characters that he shows a certain degree of affection for than in formal gimmicks. The visual style is restrained: the path of the three buddies gradually leads from the sanctity of the wedding party into the darkness of dead ends and backyards with no way out. "
  • TV Movie wrote: "A film like a diamond: angular and full of class."
  • Cinema says of the debut: "Rousing milieu thriller."
  • The film was included in the volume 101 Gangster Movies To Watch Before Life Is Over (2009).
  • Thomas Kerstan included the film in his canon for the 21st century in 2018 , a selection of works that "everyone should know" in his opinion.

Awards

The debut film was awarded the special prize for the best ensemble of actors at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1998 . He also won the Adolf Grimme Prize and the Bavarian Film Prize , the Panther.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Emanuel Bettencourt: "Back then, Mark and I always watched the Jackie Chan films in the cinema on the Reeperbahn" - Interview at jungemedienhamburg.wordpress.com, accessed on August 29, 2010
  2. ↑ Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.): 101 Gangster Films You Should See Before Life Is Over . Zurich 2009, p. 338.
  3. ↑ Th. Kerstan: What our children need to know. A canon for the 21st century. Hamburg 2018. pp. 11, 91f.