This is "Chiko", a German movie from soon 10 years ago that was written and directed by Özgür Yildirim and stars Denis Moschitto as the title character. Now you will probably say that you have never heard of these two and I cannot blame you to be honest. This is quite a shame though that they are not connected to any other great film as their efforts for this one here were simply outstanding. At least, supporting actor Moritz Bleibtreu is among Germany's most known for a truly long time. And this film was produced by Faith Akin, a household name as well. You can certainly see Akkin's influence on the film if you know a bit about him and his works. "Chiko" known no taboos: sex, death, drug abuse, graphic violence. Now many films only include these to be as shocking and controversial as possible, to have people talk about the movie. Not so this one. It all works very well in the context of the plot. Nothing in here ever feels included just for the sake of it. And it concerns everybody here. Everybody gets their fair share, especially the good ones. Life's not fair guys, movies shouldn't be either. Happy endings are for other works."Chiko" is a fairly short movie, does not even come close to the 90-minute mark, even with credits, at least in the version I saw. And that is perfectly fine. I prefer short films with great entertainment value from start to finish and a compelling story over movies that are stretched for 10 or even 20 minutes in order to grant a longer viewing, but don't have the material or story for it. You will be moved by watching "Chiko", you will be touched, entertained and surprised by the action. It is a truly positive surprise. You don't find that brave approach by Yildirim very often in other German films. Don't worry about the Turkish background of many characters in here. There is (hardly) no Turkish language in here, so you will understand everything fine without subtitles if you are fluent in German. So what are you waiting for. If you have a chance to see it, do not miss out under any circumstance. Highly recommended.

It never occurred to me that this film could be compared to classic gangster movies. To me, this film is about one thing and one thing only: true friendship. Chiko's friendship with a worthless piece of trash is more important to him than money, love, family and even his own life. IMHO, every other aspect of the film is there just to provide a setting for this one point. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but at least it's original.Regarding the immigrant stereotypes: I missed the first 5-10 minutes of the film, so maybe there was something there, but for most of the film I didn't even know they weren't German. Regarding the similarity to gangster films: The description of the 'good life' takes only 1-2 minutes and is necessary, so that we see what Chiko is giving up. All the other incidents are there simply to show us just how big a screw-up his friend is.Maybe you didn't notice, but Chiko even forgave his friend for stabbing him. After the initial surprise, he wasn't mad at him, he felt sorry for him.

A desperate attempt to mimic American mafia/gangster movies, this cliché-ridden mess plays as if a Hamburg high-school drama club had decided to stage a re-enactment of Brian De Palma's "Scarface". The non-stop, completely over-the-top profanities are, for the most part, unintentionally funny, the acting is limited to the usual swanky sputtering of threats and cuss-words through heavily gritted teeth, and characterization is virtually non-existent. Boring and predictable, this totally hits rock bottom when a montage set to the dull beats of an excruciatingly crappy German rap song shows Chiko rising to the top of the dope-dealing business, complete with loads of coke sniffing, money counting, drinking from champagne coolers in his own newly-opened restaurant and buying expensive jewelry for his girlfriend (the, sigh, hooker with a heart of gold he "bought" from her pimp) who promptly and happily flings herself into his arms when he shows her the penthouse apartment he got them. What made Faith Akin attach his name to this abysmal turkey remains his secret.

The director is very clearly influenced by Scorsese and other crime movies from the USA. You could call it his "Mean Streets". Bare in mind that this is the first feature length movie he did (I'm sure many will follow).Produced by Faith A., you can also see his influence (his first movie "Kurz and Schmerzlos", a sort of translation as summary line above, literally it means, short and painless) in this movie. It's a really good movie, not without faults though. Violence and swearing don't count as faults though. As some cinema-goers stated they didn't like the violence in the movie, but I'd like to disagree. The violence isn't as explicit as it could be. But violence is needed in a picture/movie like this, to ground it.Far away from a masterpiece this is still a good addition to the crime-thriller.