Short Sharp Shock: Fatih Akin’s energetic but realistic crime tale follows a group of friends, all immigrants in Hamburg after one of them (from a Turkish background) gets out of jail. He wants to leave their life of small-time crimes behind, but his two friends have different ideas. The film is quick, so not much development happens to the characters; in fact, each of their first scenes says all that is needed about them. Mehmet Kurtuluş plays the caring but violent protagonist, willing but unable to shake his past; Aleksandar Jovanovic, as his ambitious but not-as-smart-as-he-thinks Serbian pal, is charming; Adam Bousdoukos, the Greek sentimental and simple friend, is almost funny. Regula Grauwiller, as a love interest, is the emotional core of the film. Cinematographer Frank Barbian moves the camera well, and alongside editor Andrew Bird, gives the film its high energy.