Don't let the poster fool you. While the soft focus, yellow-tinged image of Istanbul overlaid with a couple dancing and making love, might attempt to paint the German film "Head On" as a romantic picture, it's a bit misleading.

Make no mistake, the film, written and directed by German-Turkish Fatih Akin ("In July"), has some romantic moments and sentiments, but soft-focus it isn't. Hard-hitting, emotional, brilliantly acted, however, it is.

Cahit Tomruk (Birol Unel) is a 40-ish German Turk who appears to have surrendered to life's tragedies after the death of his wife, to whom he was passionately devoted. Now he lives in a disgustingly filthy Hamburg apartment and picks up empty beer bottles at a local rock club after concerts, snorting cocaine when he can find it.

He has an unusual sex/hate relationship with local hairdresser Maren (Catrin Striebeck) and he's vaguely friendly with another Turk, Seref (Guven Kirac). But, otherwise, Cahit is alone and he seems to like it that way.

On a visit to his psychiatrist, he meets the beautiful, raven-haired 20-something Sibel Guner (Sibel Kekilli), who asks him, impetuously, "Are you Turkish?" and "Will you marry me?"

Sibel, who has attempted suicide, lives with her restrictive parents, who will allow her to marry only a Turk. Since she needs to get away from home -- mostly, she says, because she loves sex and wants to have it often and with many different men -- she's looking for a Turk to wed.

Cahit reluctantly agrees, despite his many misgivings -- as well as those of Sibel's parents -- and they marry, and Sibel moves in and cleans up the flat. Cahit can handle the neatening, but can he cope with the ways in which their already complex relationship will become still more complicated?

Neither Sibel nor Cahit is capable of coping on a daily basis and their ups and downs (read: mostly downs) are astonishing and so regular and so damaging that it's miraculous that they can survive. But, remarkably they do survive. Now, can they survive together?

Dark and, at times, painful to watch, "Head On" isn't afraid to dig deep into two troubled lives and find rays of light. Kekilli and Unel are absolutely masterful in playing these almost over-the-top losers and minutes after meeting them on screen we're stricken by them and their tortured souls; their capacity for highs and the strength -- despite the suicide attempts -- that gets them through the lows.

It's hard to find flaws in a film that even boasts a soundtrack that features The Birthday Party, Ofra Haza, Sisters of Mercy and a host of Turkish pop stars.

In fact, like a song by The Birthday Party, "Head On" has the same breathless, calamitous allure as a horrible car crash. You hate to see it, but you can't help looking, either.

"Head On" opens Friday, June 10 at Landmark's Downer Theatre.