An exhilarating tour through the vibrant contemporary music scene in Istanbul, a city where East meets West, ancient meets modern and secular meets devout, this film embraces everything from rapid-fire urban rap belted out in underground clubs to Romany circle dances. Director Fatih Akin, a German native born to Turkish immigrants, has found his ideal collaborator in Alexander Hacke, a friend and bassist from industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten, who becomes our tour guide. Whether interviewing Akin’s chosen musicians - psychedelic band Baba Zula, Kurdish chanteuse Aynur, the baglama virtuoso Orhan Gencebay – or roaming the streets, Hacke radiates unquenchable enthusiasm. Together, they also challenge conventional ideas of cultural identity: socially as much as musically, Istanbul is shown to thrive on its contradictions.