Berlin/Istanbul – Anger, frustration, defiance – all of this is reflected in Hazal’s brown eyes. “What if I stop and let the snails eat me?” asks the young Berliner (Melia Kara) with Turkish parents in the film adaptation of the novel “Elbow”. But she doesn’t stop. She runs and constantly bumps into walls of social rejection.
From the auto-correct that doesn’t know her name to the bouncer who turns her and her friends away on her 18th birthday. A fateful night. An escape. A ticket to Istanbul. Everything should be different there, right?
Hazal may be able to get into clubs in Turkey, but she is just as unsuccessful in finding a job here as she is in finding an apprenticeship in Berlin. The things she is told change from “here in Germany there are rules” and “if you plan to stay” to “you ‘German-Turks’ are sometimes naive”.
For 86 minutes, “Elbow” shows raw reality, coupled with unrepentant honesty. A film without compromises that stirs and exposes. When director Asli Özarslan read Fatma Aydemir’s novel, published in 2017, for the first time, it was clear to her: “I only wanted to consistently show her view of the world. With all its ambivalences, her anger, without having to explain or defend it. It should just be allowed to be,” explains the 38-year-old Berlin native in the run-up to the film’s cinema release.
The identity crisis that is often at the forefront of coming-of-age stories is almost irrelevant here. The self-confident Hazal is not looking for herself so much as for a chance and a place in the world. She stands by her decisions and only seems to regret them when she tries to bend herself in rare moments.
The fact that Özarslan is a trained documentary filmmaker is a distinguishing feature: Even in the feature film, the noticeable closeness to the character remains. The camera accompanies Hazal, giving her plenty of space. Lead actress and Berliner Melia Kara, who was discovered in a street casting, delivers convincing authenticity for a complex character in her first major film project.
