Camden New Journal- Review: Movies: Chiko

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with DAN CARRIER
Published: 20 August 2009

Chiko and Tibet go in search of riches in Chiko

Going gunning for drug riches

CHIKO
Directed by Ozgur Yildrim
Certificate 18

CHIKO and Tibet see the fruits of crime dangled tantalisingly before them on a daily basis.
For these two young men, brought up in a poor area of Hamburg, it seems the only real money-making opportunity available is to sell dope.
Thus begins a fast-moving tale of young men drawn to crime to furnish themselves with a life they see others leading but have no hope of attaining themselves.
The pair are obsessed with material possessions: while Tibet (Volkan Ozcan) talks of raising cash to buy his mother a new kidney, it is hot air. They want a second-hand white Mercedes and a flat with a large TV.
They enforce their domination in their patch with violence.
To do so, they have to worm their way into the affections of mobster Brownie (Moritz Bleibtreu). Of course, things don’t go as planned, and what emerges sets this film apart from your average, sleazy gangster-apologist flick.
Director Ozgur Yildrim tosses paradoxes at you throughout. Both are seen praying at their mosque, yet theirs is a decidedly im pious lifestyle. One moment they are tenderly taking mum for a dialysis session, or washing before praying, and the next they are dragging a rival down the street from the window of their car.
While there is much to admire in the honesty of this film, released by Kentish Town-based Vertigo Films, and its superb leading men, it has limitations due to its low budget. We see very little outside the world the protagonists operate in. Hamburg is not writ large, and their circumstances lack a focal point for the viewer to refer to.

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