Fratricide

A bleak, ultimately tragic yarn about Kurdish émigrés struggling to survive in urban Europe, Fratricide is a downbeat film that explores contrasting cultures with skill and sensitivity. Writer-director Yilmaz Arslan's film begins with teenaged Azad (Erdal Celik), a shepherd in Turkish Kurdistan, receiving money from his older brother Semo (Nuretin Celik) to join him in Germany, where Azad learns that Semo is working as a pimp. Rather than become a part of this sordid lifestyle, Azad takes a job cutting hair in a small, Kurdish-run café, after which an unexpected run-in with local street thugs leads to a downward spiral of violence and revenge. While Fratricide celebrates Azad's pride and integrity, it also shows the plight of immigrants who often find themselves at the mercy of a disdainful culture (the film isn't overtly preachy, but it doesn't paint the German inner city and its residents in the best possible light, to say the least). A romantic element involving Azad's Albanian girlfriend, Mirka (Xhiljona Ndoja), is never fully developed, but the movie's theme and visuals are powerful, and viewers up for an uncompromisingly depressing story will find Fratricide sufficiently absorbing. A strong optional purchase. (E. Hulse)