Fatih Akin’s latest movie ‘Tschick’ is a coming-of-age story about two boys who steal a car and embark on a life-changing road trip through Germany.
ADVERTISEMENTFatih Akin’s latest movie ‘Tschick’ is a coming-of-age story about two boys who steal a car and embark on a life-changing road trip through Germany.
Akin, a German filmmaker of Turkish descent, shot to global fame with his film ‘Head On’ back in 2004, which, like several of his movies, deals with issues of identity experienced by Germany’s Turkish-German population.
It was hard to miss Akin as he and crew members made an appearance on the red carpet in the film’s blue Lada for the Berlin premiere. He only had a few weeks to prepare for the film after taking over at the last minute when director David Wnendt dropped out, and he said that was a challenge: “For me it was the most exhausting shoot since ‘Head-On’. We didn’t have much time to think about whether what we were doing was right or wrong, we just had to get on with it.”
The film tells the story of fourteen-year old Maik, a neglected rich kid from Berlin and his new classmate Tschick, a Russian-German. The two outsiders decide to go on a road trip through Germany with a stolen Lada.
Anand Batbileg plays Tschick in the movie. It was his debut as an actor. “Working with Fathi was really good fun,” he said. “I never imagined a film director could be like this. Well, he is the first one I’ve ever met but he really is fun and upbeat, just like us. He was more like a friend than a film director.”
Based on Wolfgang Herrndorf’s cult novel ‘Tschick’ (‘Why We Took the Car’), the film has opened to positive reviews in Germany.
Out now in German-speaking countries, Fathi Akin’s ‘Tschick’ is expected to hit European theatres soon.
