Gegen die Wand and the Metaphysics of Hope
Transience and Transcendence
âAre not our extreme possibilities of self-destruction inversely proportional to a certain positive power which ceases to be conscious of itself the moment it breaks its ties with being and challenges or problematizes it?â -Gabriel Marcel
      Gegen Die Wand/Head on (2004), in the masterful portrayal of Cahit and Sibel, has for me shrewdly personified the crux Marcel was trying to unravel in his essay of The Transcendent as Metaproblematic. We are made to confront âhead onâ the boundaries one can go through in life using the narrative complexity of these two characters -leading to a realization that these boundaries can be authentically broken and transcended. Much like in the first scene of the movie where Cahit, a miserable 44-year-old man who has basically given up on life, intentionally rammed his car on a concrete wall to kill himself in belief that it will set himself free, we are constantly tormented by despair which makes it, for some of us, a very real temptation to finally put an end to it all. However, we learn as he learns in his lifeâs progression that what can truly set him (and by signification, us) free is love and hope and not death. The wall is passable. Death can be transcended. And freedom can be genuinely had.
      The journey towards this enlightenment is, nevertheless, not an easy one for the characters in this film as it is in our lives. Gegen die Wand, through the character of Sibel (another Turkish German who has resorted to suicide attempts to free herself) made us aware how dangerous our preconceived notions of freedom and happiness are if theyâre not conscientiously examined. And as real as it gets, there is but a thin line between a freedom that nourishes self and freedom that destructs self. The same goes with happiness thatâs filling and enduring and one thatâs emptying and fleeting instead. For Sibel, freedom and, consequently, happiness from freedom is in being able to drink, do drugs, have sex and just enjoy life without any restrictions. We saw how that hedonistic and narcissistic notion of freedom has done nothing but trap her into a constant state of demoralizing emptiness. True freedom, then, cannot be the ability to do whatever, whenever and however you want without limitations -to live in indetermination and impulsivity just like Sibel-as that, counterintuitively, just makes you more unfree a person. Rather, true freedom is in being able to make something that is lasting and binding -a freedom that is actualized in the realm of committing with another person (making possible genuine happiness in life). This was ironically portrayed in the film where Sibelâs marriage to Cahit brought her the fulfilment of her notion of freedom only to find out later how destructive it really is.
But this is not to invalidate the kind of belief that Sibel has because internally, in her heart, she feels that this is how she can authentically live life. It goes without saying that we cannot also invalidate the struggles of people, dismiss them as something that could be easily remedied or solved if they act in this certain way, or reduce them as inherently disordered just so they could fit our own knowledge. By the same token, we cannot simply do away with people just because we cannot comprehend them. It is an imperative that we keep trying to understand the other person and, more than that, to go beyond our understanding of them -to always be bothered to love.
And surely, even in the most ironic way and between the most narcissistic and self-absorbed of people love can be found. Cahit and Sibel found love in each other and it set both of them genuinely free from their despair -or at least momentarily until weâre pulled back with the crazy turn of events when Cahit accidentally killed Niko with a blow in the face.
From there, we regress into an understanding of the world as absurd; of which we ask -Why now? Why does it have to happen when Sibel has finally realized that she loves Cahit? Why did that had to happen at all? Like with the many questions that we ask about life and about God -Why does terrorism exist? Why are there people who willingly, knowingly, and grievously hurt other people? If there really is a God, why does he let these things happen? Why does he let the best of us suffer irretrievably and unconceivably? In front of all the misfortunes and tragedies we experience in life one cannot help but question the logic and âintelligentâ design of our creation.
One may see that it is in fully wrapping ourselves around the reality of the absurdity of life that we are free from any conceit or delusion about living. We eventually understand that we can only have so much control in life. For some of us, this is a very harsh reality to deal with. It makes us weak and powerless. It makes us feel like there is no point in even trying as everything, in the long run, will eventually get absorbed by the futility of it all. It makes the idea of committing suicide -of leaving everything and everyone -a very real temptation.
And it is here when we are faced with the deepest and darkest of our demons that we can conceive an actual redeeming possibility existing in the sphere of our relationship with someone -of Hope. Where a negative freedom that can be accomplished by suicide can present itself as a very real possibility, there exists a positive one that can be accomplished in hoping (which is a very real possibility as well; not a sort of delusion or social construct that we just use as a coping device like some people would think).
We see how these two actualizations of freedom are explored in the film juxtaposingly and even ironically. Sibel, who was living outside the prison, was in actuality more imprisoned than Cahit was inside an actual prison. Sibel, who refused to hope but instead continued to live her life in the same perspective and understanding (or rather, misunderstanding) of freedom as can only be achieved in the negative, has relied on alcohol and drugs for immediate but temporary solace -to which she was bound to an almost complete destruction of herself leading to her being beat up and stabbed in the ally. Cahit, on the contrary, has remained in hope. He held on to the belief that one day he will be finally reunited with Sibel and that this hope will be enough for him to get himself through the shackles of his imprisonment -which in the latter part of the film has proved that, indeed, hope was enough. Hope had liberated him from his material condition and had renewed him as a person as he understands that it is no longer about himself only. He has to remain strong for Sibel, for the person that he loves. From here, we are led to a metaphysical understanding of hope which Marcel has phrased as âI hope in thee for us.â It is an authentic sense of faith that exists beyond the boundaries of knowledge and certainty but still in it we remain; of sheer trusting that there is another, and even more, an Other who will not fail us. Where suicide provides a finality, Hope offers a transcendence.
Now, to answer what seems for me to be the central question provoked by the film âcan suicide, regardless of it being in the negative sense, still be an authentic freedom of oneself in response to despair? To which I answer a conditional yes and no. Yes, because, as we have sketched earlier, only in the authenticity of suicide as a real possibility will the authenticity of hoping also be a real possibility. In this sense, we can say that suicide can authentically eliminate despair. However, in a deeper reflection â if authentic freedom is primordial in our pursuit of meaning and happiness in our lives, isnât it that suicide does not only eliminate despair but completely obliterate the space where both despair and happiness is possible? In this sense, we can understand that, no, suicide will not genuinely set us free -it can only offer us an easy escape; an easy way out of life.
Here, we are led to ask a more essential question about life âdoesnât it all come down to the question of what is the humane thing to do? Yes, because after all, we are humans. And we are to do what is more characteristic to being human; to being true to our humanity. Wouldnât that be to hope, love, and remain in an openness to life?
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