Cracks in Concrete is the story of Ertan, an ex-convict in his mid-30s, and Mikail, fifteen, known as Mika, a small-time dealer and rapper who has dropped out of school.

After ten years behind bars Ertan is released on probation and finds himself in a Vienna he no longer recognises. There are only two people left from the gang he knew before he was locked up. One of them, Yilmaz, has risen to become a big-time dealer and makes it quite clear to Ertan where he belongs: beneath him. The other, Kemal, a likeable drunk, is still Ertan‘s pal, living in the past when they were both young.

Mika is trying to compile a mix tape, a demo of his rap songs, planning to give it to a major German rapper called Azad who will soon be in Vienna for a concert. Mika fervently hopes this will be a first step towards a future of money, fame and respect. He is raising the money to make the mix tape by selling grass, which he and his friends buy from Yilmaz. But he can’t keep all the money he makes: Mika helps out his mother Sanja, a single parent who also has his little sister to bring up. And on top of all this he‘s trying to make it with a girl called Daria, who doesn’t seem so keen.

Ertan gets himself a job in the Youth Centre where Mika is recording his mix tape. While Mika runs up more and more debts with Yilmaz and pulls off some dangerous deals, Ertan tries to get closer to the boy. This makes Andrea, one of the social workers of the Youth Centre, suspicious of Ertan… especially when he admits to her why he was doing time in prison.

But Ertan is the one who stands by Mika when his plans go wrong all of a sudden. The question is, will Ertan manage to help Mika without plunging back into the abyss himself?

Screenplay: Petra Ladinigg, Umut Dağ
Director: Umut Dağ
Camera: Georg Geutebrück
Editing: Claudia Linzer
Original sound: Sergey Martynyuk, Peter Rösner
Producer Veit Heiduschka, Michael Katz
Costume design: Cinzia Cioffi
Production design: Katrin Huber, Gerhard Dohr
Music: Iva Zabkar
Cast: Murathan Muslu (Ertan), Alechan Tagaev (Mikail), Ivan Kriznjak (Dejan)