RHINEGOLD

Born during a bombing raid in a cave swarming with bats, Giwar Jajabi, aka Xatar, was never going to have a quiet life. Feted filmmaker Fatih Akin hurtles at breakneck speed through the monstrous all-true adventures of the surprisingly likeable German rapper, whose father was an Iraqi concert pianist. Xatar's life of crime reached its apogee with plans for a sensational gold heist that landed him in a Syrian prison. It is here that the film opens, with the muscle-bound Xatar (Emilio Sakraya) being tortured by fellow inmates wanting him to reveal where the gold is. It's an experience that takes him right back to his first incarceration as a child with his parents in revolutionary Iran. Akin's energetic use of freeze frames, slow-motion and a rocking soundtrack recalls early Guy Ritchie films; 140 minutes of crime, drug-dealing, fights and Xatar's eventual success in the music industry just flies by.