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R15

RHINEGOLD

Genre
Drama
Running time
140 minutes
Year
2022
Language
German, Kurdish, Turkish, Dutch, English and Arabic
Subtitle
English and German
Country
Germany, Netherlands, Morocco and Mexico
Director
Fatih Akin
Bio
Producer
Fatih Akin, Nurhan Şekerci-Porst, Herman Weigel
Cast
Emilio Sakraya, Kardo Razzazi, Mona Pirzad, Arman Kashani, Hüseyin Top, Sogol Faghani
Scriptwriter
Fatih Akin
Born during a bombing raid in a cave swarming with bats, Giwar Jajabi, aka Xatar, was never going to have a quiet life. Feted filmmaker Fatih Akin hurtles at breakneck speed through the monstrous all-true adventures of the surprisingly likeable German rapper, whose father was an Iraqi concert pianist. Xatar's life of crime reached its apogee with plans for a sensational gold heist that landed him in a Syrian prison. It is here that the film opens, with the muscle-bound Xatar (Emilio Sakraya) being tortured by fellow inmates wanting him to reveal where the gold is. It's an experience that takes him right back to his first incarceration as a child with his parents in revolutionary Iran. Akin's energetic use of freeze frames, slow-motion and a rocking soundtrack recalls early Guy Ritchie films; 140 minutes of crime, drug-dealing, fights and Xatar's eventual success in the music industry just flies by.

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