Problematizing the Hyphen: Disorientation and Doubled Otherness in Fatih Akin's Head-On

This essay investigates the multiple layers of disorientation experienced by German-born Turks in Fatih Akin’s award-winning film, Head-On. Akin’s skillful illustration of the generation gap that exists between first-wave immigrants and their children living in Hamburg provide a context through which to analyze the challenges of constructing hyphenated identities. Unable to negotiate their religious and gender identities, the second-generation immigrant is often unequipped to find useful ways to balance the expectations of their diasporic communities with their personal desire to establish a sense of autonomy that can put an end to their segregation from the national sphere