As with many foreign films I probably would never have heard of this German-Turkish film if it wasn't featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so that was for me the best reason to try it. Basically forty something Turkish German man Cahit Tomruk (Birol Ünel) has given up on life after his wife died and takes cocaine and drinks alcohol to get through everyday, and one night he attempts suicide driving his car head-on into a wall, but he barely survives the crash. He is taken to a psychiatric clinic where he meets another Turkish German, also suicidal Sibel Güner (Sibel Kekilli), and she asks him to carry out the most bizarre plan, she wants him to marry her, with no questions asked, so that she can break away from her strict conservative family, he is outraged by the idea. Eventually though Cahit agrees to the plan she explains she prefers a sex life independently, the have separate private lives but share a place as roommates, but as time goes by they do fall in love, but he kills a former lover of her's in anger and goes to prison. While he is locked away Sibel gets away from her family travelling to Istanbul to stay with Selma (Meltem Cumbul), her divorced hotel manager cousin, she accepts a job in the hotel, but finds her new life restrictive like prison, so she goes to live in the apartment of a bartender who gives her drugs and alcohol. The bartender rapes her and throws her out, and wandering the streets following this she antagonises three men to beat her up severely, continuing to urge them on to the point when one pulls a knife, and they run and leave her for dead. Several years pass, Cahit has been released and goes to Istanbul to find his wife, Selma initially refuses to tell him where she is, but she tells him she is in a long-term relationship and with a daughter, we do not see how she recovered from the rape and beating. Cahit waits for Sibel to call him, and they meet and make love, he wants her to run away with him to which she agrees, but packing she hears her husband and is delighted to see her daughter, so she never returns to Cahit, he travels on a bus somewhere, possibly to his birth city Mersin. Also starring Catrin Striebeck as Maren, Stefan Gebelhoff as Nico and Hermann Lause as Dr. Schiller. It is a recognisable story of a non romantic encounter with an odd circumstance, in this case a non- relationship based wedding, and slowly falling in love over time, but also there are distinctive moments that stand out, for me especially the very violent beating of the leading woman, and also drug taking and alcoholism, it is a most watchable romantic drama. Very good!