Turkish-Geman director Fatih Akin's Golden Bear winner Head-On(Gegen Die Wand) has hit the box-officejackpot in Turkey registering 65,547 admissions in its first week of release.

The film is being distributed by RFilm through Warner Bros.Turkey on 55 prints in 10 cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and smallercentres like Antalya, Bursa, Mersin and Gaziantep.

'This is considered to be a wide release for ourterritory and our company', RFilm's Erdi Zencirli told ScreenDaily.com. 'The critics' reaction to Head-On has been amazing. The film has received a verywarm welcome and incredibly good reviews.'

Zencirli explained thatRFilm had organised 'a high level of promotion' for the film, with a'spectacular' gala premiere attended by the Turkish Minister ofCulture. 'Now that the film has been released, the word of mouth istaking over. And more and more people are going to theatres to see thefilm,' she said..

In answer to German press reports about alleged threats toexhibitors who programmed the film, Zencirli stressed: 'There have been nosecurity measures taken at any of the theatres as there were no threats made atany point and none of the film screenings were ever postponed. This isthe first time I hear it and really would like to know the real source behindthis unfounded news.'

Moreover, she pointed out that the Turkish newspapers Zaman and Evrensel regard Akin's hard-hitting drama 'very highly' and did notsubscribe to the views attributed to them by the German daily newspaper DieWelt.