Fatih Akin is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker’s whose latest film, the World War II drama Amrum, starring Diane Kruger, is in theaters now through Kino Lorber. Among his many notable films as writer-director are his 2004 film Head-On, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival; The Edge of Heaven (2007), which won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, followed by the European Film Award; Soul Kitchen (2009), which won the Special Jury Prize in competition at Venice; In the Fade (2017), starring Diane Kruger, which won numerous awards, including Best Actress (Diane Kruger) in Cannes and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. (Photo by Gordon Timpen, © 2025 bombero international GmbH & Co. KG / Rialto Film GmbH / Warner Bros. Entertainment GmbH.)
Three Great Things is Talkhouse’s series in which artists tell us about three things they absolutely love. To mark the current release in theaters of writer-director Fatih Akin’s new World War II-set drama, Amrum, starring Diane Kruger, Laura Tonke, Jasper Billerbeck and Lisa Hagmeister, the German-Turkish auteur shared some of the things he loves most in life. — N.D.
Boxing
I box and I always have done. I used to box at a club with other people until I got injured and needed two surgeries. (The injury was not because of a punch, it was to my right knee, because in boxing you need good footwork.) The house where I live now has a common basement which nobody was using, so I built a boxing gym and now I work out there. I have big mirrors, heavy bags – I have everything.
I have a very stressful life which is full of filmmaking and meetings, and sitting – lots of sitting! It’s difficult to get my mind out of the film world, and the older I get, the more I work. I have an everyday life with a wife, children and a dog, and they have their place, but I feel like I never get out of my own head. But when I box, it’s one of the rare times in the week when I’m not thinking about filmmaking at all. When you hit a speed bag, you have to fully concentrate on that. It’s like meditation. It’s the same with the heavy bag. If you want to hit it right, you need to really focus.
I mostly play music when I’m boxing, so I completely lose myself. I sometimes meditate as well, where I just focus on breathing, but it’s very difficult. Your mind goes everywhere, except breathing. You have to remind yourself every so often, Hey, go back to the breath. But when you hit a heavy bag or a speed bag, or if you do shadowboxing, you don’t think about these things, you just think, How was that jab? How was that hook? That’s why boxing is more than just a sport. It keeps you in shape, but the best thing about boxing is what it does to your mind.
Prince
I’m a huge Prince fan. I remember back in 1984, when I was 10 years old, the only stereo my family had was a radio with a cassette player and recorder. Every Saturday between 6 and 8 p.m., the Top 20 was on the radio, and I’d record it. I didn’t know about the music, I didn’t know who was who, but for some reason it seemed to be important to collect music. I remember they played three songs by Prince, two of which were in the charts, and the DJ said, “OK, I added a third one, because three is the magic number.” The songs were “When Doves Cry,” “Baby I’m a Star” and “Purple Rain,” all from the Purple Rain album. That was the moment when I fell in love with Prince’s music and that love has never left my life. When I hear that music today, I feel the same emotion; it’s a beautiful feeling, because it somehow keeps me 10 years old.
As soon as I started earning money, when I was 15 or 16, I began buying records, mostly by Prince. The first Prince album I bought was Parade by Prince and the Revolution from 1986, and I’ve been collecting Prince records ever since. Today, I think I have 500 vinyl records by Prince, plus another 1,000 CDs of his music, mostly bootlegs. It feels like every month, a couple of new bootlegs come out and they’re expensive, so that’s where the money goes! I’m still collecting those records, and I’m still chasing every Record Store Day when the Prince estate brings music out of “the vault.” It’s so interesting, because it seems like Prince must make music in heaven, because we still keep getting new music from him.
Prince’s music really is a passion for me. I mean, I have a huge record collection and it’s one of the sins of my life to spend too much money on vinyl. But the only vinyl I have at home is my Prince collection; all the other records are at my office. The Prince records are like my gold, so they’re all here, in my house.
My Room
When I thought about my favorite places, I realized that I have no place but my home, and my own room. The room where I work, where I do all my writing. This is the place where I listen to music, talk to friends, the place where I watch films – because there’s a big television in the room. It’s also the place where I sleep, because there’s a bed here, too. My wife and I don’t sleep in the same room, which I think is the secret of our marriage. (Neither of us is a good sleeper, so this was our solution.)
Believe it or not, I spent most of my life in my room, and it is such a special place. My room is my completion. It’s my protection. I used to go out to bars a lot – I was a DJ and I would party – but those days are over. From time to time, people invite me to socialize, but I really don’t want to go out, because I have everything I need in my room. I mean, my work is my passion. I love to write, and the coolest thing is I can sleep here, too. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I get an idea and as soon as I wake up, I can just sit down in front of my computer, write the scene straight away, and then go back to bed.
My room is a loft in an old building that used to be a factory. It’s kind of a difficult room, because it’s at the top of a building with a slanted roof on either side, so there’s not a lot of space. In a lot of places, the ceiling is too low, but I’ve found the perfect way to use every corner and fill every tiny place with things that I need. I try to keep the room simple and although I do have quite a lot of stuff here, it’s because my whole life is spent in this room. And it’s not messy, which is important. The moment it gets messy, I realize that the messiness is inside of me.
To me, my room is a perfect reflection of my inner being, and it’s the most protective and entertaining space for me. It’s also the place I can write the best. One of my gifts is that I can write anywhere, but the best place for me is my room. When I’m here, there’s always somebody ringing the doorbell downstairs and the dog’s barking and my wife’s on the phone and my daughter’s coming in with a friend and my son’s coming home at midnight with his friends. There’s always noise, but it’s the best way for me to focus. If it were quiet here, I couldn’t focus. I have to escape the exterior noise to find the inner space.
Featured image by Gordon Timpen, © 2025 bombero international GmbH & Co. KG / Rialto Film GmbH / Warner Bros. Entertainment GmbH.
