Plot Summary
Aicha, a high-school student, is a passionate kung fu fighter. Her Turkish parents expect her to get into medical school, like her brother Ali. Defying her family, Aicha starts secretly training at a professional, co-ed kung fu club. A boy, Emil, helps Aicha train for the club championship and they fall in love. But the rules of life are not as simple as the rules of kung fu, and Aicha is forced to decide who she is and what she wants. “Right away you should see how FIGHTER differs from most martial arts films. While the training and combat scenes are plentiful, they are not the point of the film. This is a film about Aicha, a young girl caught between cultures trying to find her own way through life, trying to learn who she is and what role her family plays for her. It is a coming of age story, a race and gender issues story, and a love story before it is a martial arts story and it stands head and shoulders above the huge majority of fight films.” –Brown, Twitchfilm. From IFC Films.
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Customer Reviews
Deserves more attention
Caught this film on late night TV by accident, and I was immediately drawn into the story. The conflict that Aicha finds herself in, a young woman who adopts the role of a kung fu fighter in a society that represses women's roles and its implications for her, her family, and their "friends" is developed. It's like seeing a stone dropped in water, the ripples move out, and reflect back on themselves in some complex way. In this culture, it's OK for her brother to become a doctor; but it is not OK for Aicha to be what she is. Not only does she have to master herself to develop her martial arts skills in the traditional way, she also has to deal with the fact that almost everyone around her seeks her failure, implicitly or explicitly. Even the few Westerners who might appreciate her independence as a woman have no appreciation for her discipline. That she can find a way through all of her struggle and personal loneliness in a believable and compelling way is a tribute to Aicha within the context of the story, but also of Semra Turan's acting skill and Natasha Arty's directing skill. The cast is great, the tension real, the action plausible and gritty, the characters' flaws are drawn out truthfully and intertwined as the story moves forward. At one point, her father asks Aicha "Who could ever love someone like you?" Well I did. Bravo.
A Fantastic Movie
Both the story and the kung-fu action sequences are above and beyond.
Touching, real life social and religious conflicts within a Turkish immigrant family and community in Scandinavia.
A great movie!
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