Film

Lola + Bilidikid (1998)

Director: Kutlug Ataman

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Murat, 17, comes from what might be called, in the context of Berlin's Turkish-immigrant transvestite subculture, a traditional family. Short on a father (dead) and one brother (a runaway), the family's broken and tormented by Murat's remaining sibling Osman, a fearful bully who's also evidently stupid going by his attempts to force a prostitute on his brother. Murat (Davrak) prefers the action in the town's underground cabaret and drag bars, where a diva called Lola (Mukli) catches his interest. He draws closer to this fringe world, with its muckers and misfits - and discovers that Lola is his missing brother. This second feature from Turkish writer/director Ataman is a wracked, high pitched drama driven only so far by its sincerity, conviction and feel for the emotional jeopardy of life in the margins. At a generous stretch you could discern the spirit of Fassbinder in its involvement with Berlin's ghettocracy; dramatically, though, the film's overwrought and alienating.

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