Short, Sharp, Shock, or Kurz und schmerzlos, in its original title, is a Fatih Akin-directed movie about the life of three friends with immigrant backgrounds in Hamburg that caught in a life of a major crime. Gabriel, a Turk who just got out of prison wants to leave the life of crime for Turkey as, according to him, in Turkey you will never feel alone since everybody knows everyone and relatives are everywhere.
He also added that the Anatolian Peninsula country’s environment is warm and alive, an ideal place to run a beach cafe, especially on the south coast where the waves are right by yourself all day.
Bobby, a Serb, is hungry for street cred in which then eventually decided to shake hands with the devil – the Albanian mafia – despite his ethnic background. As time goes by, Bobby was able to recruit Costa, a broke man from Greece who has turned to petty theft to support his daily life, to do a job for the Albanian mobster, Muhamer.
After a bit, Gabriel felt like he is still tangled up in the same situations before he was locked up, leading to him trying to utilize his street-smart way to push his two friends away from the life of crime. Unfortunately, the Turk’s actions only pushed the two the other way around.
In the end, Bobby’s failed weapons deal led to the literal destruction of the friendship in a short, sharp, and shock punishment; the kind of punishment that is severe yet only lasts for a short time.
Set in mid-90s urban Hamburg-Altona with its dirty walls and retro cars, the movie shows numerous of Hamburg’s most famous landmarks, ranging from the well-known Reeperbahn entertainment district and Lessing Tunnel to the Övelgönne Pyramid and Port of Hamburg, a great promenade along the Elbe and an important feature to the city’s working-class identity.
It also celebrates the multicultural society that Germany has become as the film perfectly captured the life of immigrants that is surrounded by social welfare, crime, as well as cultural minorities.
The friendship between the three, the one that gradually deteriorated, is beautifully portrayed, which results in an interesting story that is also warm and entertaining. The movie focuses on the crisis, mainly in terms of identity, of German youths from different ethnic backgrounds. To emphasize this, the 100-minute movie shows how the Turk-Greco-Serb gang navigates themselves in the underworld, aiming for love and money within their daily struggle to live under dreadful poverty.
In terms of actions, the movie contains realistic violence, despite there being little to no special effects and visual work. In addition to that, the characters are very alive. You would still love these three gangsters despite them being criminals, especially if you love Lars Becker’s most famous La Haine. Definitely worth a watch!