Second movie seen: Fighter
What it is (description from TFF Web site): This high-energy martial arts drama chronicles a driven high school student caught between the expectations of her traditional Turkish family and her kung fu dreams. With slickly choreographed fight scenes, Fighter is an empowering story that culminates with an emotional punch.
Viewing partners: none
Fighter Review: Bend It Like Beckham and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon can add another member to the cinematic girl-power family: Fighter, an exhilarating Danish/Turkish production about a wannabe teen kung-fu fighter.
For Aicha (Semra Turan) to achieve her dream, she has several obstacles to tackle: gender bias, failing grades, familial disapproval, and suspicions about her relationship with cute training partner Emil (Cyron Melville). Much of this sounds like the Beckham blueprint, but in Fighter, the struggles run deeper. As a member of Copenhagen’s close-knit Muslim Turkish community, Aicha will suffer grave consequences for her defiance. When her family learns her secret, we watch a food fight unlike any other, with awesome wire work – as well as punches and cruel slams of Aicha’s character.
Writer/director Natasha Arthy doesn’t make Aicha’s life a total downer: A training run with Emil over rooftops would boost even the laziest theatergoer’s endorphins, and Turan glows during the fight sequences.
The end of Fighter may not be the traditional crowd-pleaser in the American sense, but it honors Aicha and her heritage, and it still makes a person cheer. After 11 movies at the Tribeca Film Festival, I finally felt alive after this feature.
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