Grow up! – Masculinity, violence and genre in Fatih Akıns Short sharp shock
Stellan PantléonIn the mid-1990s, a second generation of Turkish-German filmmakers appeared on the scene with hip-hop-inspired tales of crime-ridden, urban neighbourhoods and their self-empowered, post-migrant inhabitants. Fatih Akıns first featurelength film Short sharp shock (1998) tells the story of three marginalized youngsters from the ›hood‹ struggling with their place in society. The protagonist’s wish to „grow up“ and overcome the criminal lifestyle collides with established masculinites maintained through acts of violence. This article seeks to analyze the functionality of key conflicts in terms of genre conventions and their reflection in the film. Moreover, it is to be shown that even in deconstructing genre-inherent masculinities, the film does not provide any alternatives.