The New York Times

Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul - Review - Movies

By MANOHLA DARGIS

June 9, 2006

If life were fair and film exhibition better, you could watch Fatih Akin's musical mystery tour "Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul" while standing up, or, more ideally, while swaying, spinning and shimmying. An infectiously enjoyable survey of contemporary Turkish music, the documentary works as a corollary to Mr. Akin's breakout fiction film, "Head-On." A tough-love romance about cultural identity and the sustaining joys of punk rock, that film brought Mr. Akin, a German native born to Turkish immigrants, international acclaim.

This new film feels like something of a gift, as if the director had decided to burn some of his favorite songs for his newfound friends, the world-cinema audience.

To help him with his survey, Mr. Akin, who wrote and directed the film and also served as a camera operator, has enlisted Alexander Hacke, the bassist from the industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten. Narrating in German, the bushy-faced Mr. Hacke makes a wonderfully appealing guide, partly because he's an unabashed enthusiast, partly because he's a genuine character.

The musician is clearly following a path laid out for him by the filmmaker, whether he's conducting interviews with fellow musicians or roaming the city's atmospheric streets. Yet while the whole thing could come off as perilously twee, the artificiality of Mr. Hacke's role and the setup (he checks into the same Istanbul hotel that the hero in "Head-On" stays in) only adds to the film's unexpected charm.

The Kurdish singer Aynur in a scene from the documentary "Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul."

Like the characters in "Head-On," Istanbul straddles two distinct, sometimes conflicting and violently contradictory worlds. On both sides of the Bosporus strait, the city brings together the continents and cultures of Europe and Asia in a single geographically unique, heterogeneous package that clearly fascinates Mr. Akin.

"We try to be European," one musician says early in the film, "but at the same time we're open to the East."

The man's friend, seated next to him in an outdoor cafe, gently smiles at this comment, and then adds his perspective: "He who tries to be European is not European."

The musician doesn't bother to dispute this, but does contribute a rather more pragmatic final thought: "Wherever we are, we are. And that goes especially for musicians."

Although the film ranges far and wide musically and geographically — from the tongue-trippingly fast rap of Istanbul to the soulful Romany instrumentals and haunting Kurdish dirges in outlying towns — Mr. Akin never strays far from the idea that making and, by extension, appreciating music is itself identity-forming. That point is underscored by the younger musicians in the film who consistently offer thanks to the most unlikely progenitors, including Orhan Gencebay, one of the most famous film and music stars in Turkey. Mr. Gencebay, seated below a portrait of his younger self, his trademark mustache and dignity securely in place, strums a saz like nobody's business. Seated nearby, Mr. Hacke records this Turkish legend with the seriousness of a true believer. Though he's traveled far, he is right at home.

Crossing the Bridge--The Sound of Istanbul

NYT Critic’s Pick

Director Fatih Akin

Writer Fatih Akin

Stars Alexander Hacke, Ahmed Ulug, Cem Yegul, Mehmed Ulug, Baba Zula

Running Time 1h 30m

Genre Documentary, Music