Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos)

Kısa ve Acısız (German: Kurz und schmerzlos; English: Short Sharp Shock) is the 1998 feature debut of Fatih Akın, who also wrote the screenplay. Mixing crime, drama and thriller elements, it is set among Hamburg's immigrant communities and centers on the identity crises of young people of various ethnic backgrounds raised in Germany. The theme of mixed ethnic communities that recurs in Akın's later films appears here for the first time at feature length. It was nominated at the German Film Awards for both best film and best director.

The story takes place in Hamburg's Altona district. Gabriel (Mehmet Kurtuluş), the son of a Turkish immigrant family, and his friends the Serbian Bobby (Aleksandar Jovanovic) and the Greek Costa (Adam Bousdoukos) have long acted like a neighborhood gang. When Gabriel goes in and out of prison, their lives begin to change. Tired of petty crime and matured by prison, he wants to settle in southern Turkey, start his own business and live an orderly life; meanwhile he drives a taxi. His old friends first overlook, then resist the change. They also clash with an Albanian gangster.

The cast also includes Regula Grauwiller as Alice, Cem Akın as Gabriel's brother and İdil Üner. The film reached Turkish cinemas on November 7, 2003.