Fatih Akin allows himself the luxury of modeling himself on the American neoblaxploit of the 1990s while remaining original enough.
Asking Fatih Akin to approach the figure of the rapper Xatar with the manual of biopics/hagiographies of self-made rebels with a cause, idols of the song to use, was like asking him when he approached the serial killers in ‘The Monster from St. Pauli’ something conventional would come out and not a sordid and full of black humor ode to the dirtiest psychopath that devastated Germany (Hitler aside, of course). ‘Pure gold-Rheingold’ is not ‘8 Miles’ (or Xatar Eminem) and much less any film directed by Daniel Calparsoro, fortunately. Beyond the parallels with the mythology of the Rhinegold, the Nibelungs and the heroic and Aryan Siegfried (here, maliciously and ironically, a Kurdish by birth, imprisoned in Iraq and immigrant misfit in 1980s Germany), Akin allows himself the luxury of taking the American neoblaxploit of the 90s as a model to make his Wagnerian hero a new gangsta myth on a par with those of the sensational ‘New Jack City’, by Mario Van Peebles, and above all ‘ Money to Burn’, by the Hughes brothers. Thus, this syncopated rap anthem that deals with the rise in a racist and unstructured society (and in a Europe that seemed to be heading towards the unitary dream of well-being cradled in Beethoven’s ninth symphony) of a born survivor and hustler, of a small thief turned dealer, he adopts the style and narrative structure of a rise but not a fall of someone who wanted to achieve the golden dream not by playing the game of the system, but by stealing gold like Auric Goldfinger or the stateless renegades of ‘Kelly’s The Violent’ or ‘ Three Kings’ while writing a furious diary in the form of songs.
It is true that Fatih Akin ends up yielding to the most consensus biographical note for the biography and for the average viewer when most of the footage was making a film for all those creatures of the lumpen criminal, and that in the end he does not know how to get the most out of it. Xatar’s musical themes as a counterpoint or footnote to his path to the gold of the Nibelungs without finishing killing the dragon (an anti-establishment film that seems finally designed to live in this… as Xatar ended up doing), but it remains original, energetic, foul-mouthed, and genre-bending enough for us to continue to trust this director bent on dissolving the gold plating of the German miracle. By the way: do you know the title of the novel, by Heinz Strunk, who adapted ‘The Monster of St. Pauli’ and who was the alias of that murderer of prostitutes? ‘Der goldene Hands’, the golden hands. Well that.
For those allergic to conventional musical biopics
DATA SHEET
Address: Fatih Akin Distribution: Emilio Sakraya, Kardo Razzazi, Karim Günes, Jonathan Sussner Country: Germany Year: 2022 Release date: 10–2-2023 Gender: Drama Script: Fatih Akin Book: Giwar Hajabi Duration: 138 min.
Synopsis: It chronicles the journey of rapper Xatar from the ghetto to the top of the music charts, living a dramatic adventure story along the way. From the hell of an Iraqi prison, Giwar Hajabi came to Germany as a young man with his family in the mid-1980s. Although he landed at the bottom, he enjoyed some opportunities and was learning from his many setbacks.
Source: Fotogramas
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
