Chiko

Early in Chiko, its title character (an excellent Denis Moschitto) tells his best friend Tibet that if you want respect, you can't show any to anyone else. This statement surely encapsulates all gangster films; beyond the dodgy dealings, power trips and the violence is a juvenile desire to be the biggest bully in the playground. First-time director Özgür Yildirim succeeds in creating characters that are believable, multi-layered and oddly endearing. Despite becoming embroiled in Hamburg's seedy underworld, Chiko and Tibet still have to watch their language around Tibet's ill mother, and details like this keep the plot grounded in a world that viewers can recognise and accept. When events begin to go wrong, as they inevitably do, the violence is brutal but not gratuitously graphic, and no less disturbing as a result. Chiko's only downfall is that it doesn't offer many new ideas, but it remains a solid, memorable addition to the genre.