Crossing the Bridge

Apparently the success of Buena Vista Social Club has paved the way for other films in which some music industry veteran goes to some exotic locale and brings back a variety of indigenous music. Here we get “The Sound of Istanbul,” and because it’s made by Fatih Akin, director of the marvelous Head-On, we get an intimate cross-section of contemporary Turkey, emerging from the oppression of military rule, with a flourishing diversity of ethnic and popular music. Unfortunately we get way too much of this German dude lugging his recording equipment around and hovering at the edges while the various groups are performing. But when the performances are allowed to run uninterrupted, they can be transfixing -- from politically minded rappers and street buskers on a mission to longtime pop stars, from Romany dance music to Kurdish laments. Istanbul is of course the crossroads of the world, where Europe and Asia meet, with the Bosporus as an ever-present reminder. This film presents the bridge across, in the actual span and in music. (2005, dvd, n.) *7-* (MC-73.)