A Breath of Fresh Air; With their passion and anger, Germany's creative young immigrants are revitalizing the country's cultural scene.

Byline: Stefan Theil

"Head on" is one of the most startlingly fresh films to come out of Germany in recent years. A gritty and violent love story about two young Germans of Turkish descent, it crackles with the tension between the ultratraditional values of immigrant Gastarbeiter, or guest workers, and the new Western freedoms that surround them. That's no coincidence: the director, 30-year-old Fatih Akin, was born in Hamburg to Turkish parents. Last month "Head On" became the first German film in 18 years to win the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Film Festival. Dieter Kosslick, the festival's director, called Akin's rebellious film "pure rock and roll."

Opening to sellout crowds across Germany last week, "Head On" is only the latest product of the country's increasingly prolific immigrant artists. These days some of Germany's most critically acclaimed books, films and music are coming not from people called Meier, Muller or Grass but from those named Kaminer, Kekilli and Gundogdu. Russian-born author and DJ Wladimir Kaminer has reached cult status with quirky novels like "Russian Disco," which describes Berlin through the eyes of its Russian-Jewish immigrants. German hip-hop would be a contradiction in terms if not for successful rap stars like Ekrem (Eko Fresh) Bora and "Kool" Savas Yurderi, both German-born Turks.

Elsewhere in the world, vibrant immigrant communities have routinely reshaped local culture: think Latino Miami or London's South Asian fusion. But Germany's ethnic minorities, led by the country's 2.5 million Turks, have traditionally played little role in the country's cultural life--in part because the first generation long held onto the myth that they would one day return home. Now, 40 years after the first Gastarbeiter arrived--and as their ambitious, German-born offspring come of age--that picture is changing fast. German high arts may be mostly stagnant, but immigrant neighborhoods are reinvigorating culture with fresh energy and a will to succeed.

The works are firmly rooted in the immigrants' German experience. In Akin's film, the striking Sibel Kekilli plays the early-20s daughter of a traditional Gastarbeiter family in Hamburg who yearns for the social and sexual freedoms of her German peers. Since her parents and brother will let her leave home only if she marries another Turk, she persuades a down-and-out alcoholic--played by Birol Unel--to marry her for show. She embarks on a wild ride of sex, drugs and alcohol, gets disowned by her family and eventually finds a stable but not quite happy end. Part of the film's intensity comes from the fact that it is infused with Akin's, Kekilli's and Unel's own biographies. Unel became an actor and alcoholic to rebel against a conservative background. Akin also had traditional parents. And Kekilli worked as a porn star--at the age of 19--the ultimate rebellion for a traditional Muslim girl.

Turkish-German artists, in ...