Recommended to open-minded music lovers with a high tolerance for unctuous Germans.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 1, 2024

A superb sociological and musicological essay, Crossing the Bridge opens door after door of musical revelation.

| Mar 14, 2018

Though its photography is keen and vibrant and its concept elegantly simple, the movie doesn't quite add up beyond its performances.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 19, 2006

Crossing the Bridge does more than offer a wide variety of entertaining and intoxicating Turkish music. It also uses music to paint a portrait of a vibrant, cosmopolitan city and provide a window into a rich and varied national culture.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 18, 2006

A delightful survey of Turkish music's many intriguing variations, as well as a fascinating, if somewhat superficial, portrait of one of the most historic cities on Earth.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 18, 2006

The music is gorgeous, and Akin's feverish camera shows an exile's love of the beautiful, crumbling but energized city as he pokes around its crevices, looking for recombinations of old and new, here and there.

Full Review | Aug 17, 2006

Even as Crossing the Bridge acknowledges differences, tensions, the provocative power music exerts on our hearts, it makes an elegant, head-bopping, hip-swaying argument that sound unifies.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 4, 2006

Though not nearly as exhilarating or illuminating as Buena Vista Social Club, this structurelss docu does capture the unique variety of sounds of Istanbul, a city strategically positied between East and West.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 2, 2006

It's a heady, occasionally free-floating mix, and a feast for music lovers.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 28, 2006

Then-and-now footage of aging legends such as Erkin Koray and Sezen Aksu offers an insight into the musical continuum that bridges a rich heritage with a promising future.

| Original Score: B | Jul 27, 2006

Akin's documentary gets its legs from the subtle questions it raises about Turkey's politics, nationalism, religious identity, cultural integrity and international perception.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 14, 2006

While Crossing the Bridge is sure to find an appreciative audience among world music aficionados, its crossover appeal seems limited at best.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2006

An infectious (in a good way) documentary.

| Jun 29, 2006

... an exciting introduction to a worthy musical world.

| Jun 15, 2006

You'll feel lucky for such a comprehensive introduction to Turkish music, and will no doubt be scrambling for a soundtrack album.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 9, 2006

It's a tasty sonic apertif to an unfamiliar world, and likely to inspire more than a few folks to make a beeline for the world music browser at the music store.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 9, 2006

The musical selections are nothing if not eclectic -- rock, hop-hop, psychedelic, folk, electronica, traditional -- and include some perky performances. But Crossing the Bridge is more than just a musical primer.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 9, 2006

It is our good fortune that Akin and his on-screen narrator, bass player Alexander Hacke, are our passionate guides through the country's musical history.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 9, 2006

If the music fails to hold your interest, there's always Madonna.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 8, 2006

An infectiously enjoyable survey of contemporary Turkish music, Fatih Akin's documentary works as a corollary to his breakout fiction film, Head-On.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 8, 2006