I just watched "Auf der anderen Seite" (Edge of Heaven)in a cinema in Bremen, not too far from where some of the scenes in the first part have been shot. (Well, if you have to know it, they are the ones with the prostitutes and the shoe shop ;). I am a huge fan of Faith Akin's work ever since I saw "Head On" (Gegen die Wand) which is in my view one of the best films that has come out of Germany in a decade and certainly could hold its own against Oscar winner "The Lives of Others". If you have a chance to get it on DVD, I would strongly recommend to rent it out.
"Auf der anderen Seite" treads on similar ground like his earlier film. His protagonists experience an "amour fous", an unsuitable love and its subsequent loss, the loneliness of being between two cultures and belonging to neither, and the eternal search for "the other place", the place where you belong and can be happy. But "Auf der anderen Seite" is far more ambitious than "Gegen die Wand" as it tells these themes through six different protagonists whose lives are intertwined: two mothers and two daughters and a father and a son. "Auf der anderen Seite" means in this context also to understand the "other side", your parent or your child. And it also means the understanding between Turkish and German people who are the main protagonists here. However, it is the film's ambitious multi-protagonist structure that prevents it from being truly great and moving. If you think "Traffic" was constructed, think again. In this film, there are even more coincidences, most of them unlucky. The most annoying side effect of this multi-structure is the fact the characters stay rather flat and feel constructed despite the good acting. It doesn't really help that Faith Akin's dialogue seems to be rather on the wooden side to me - at least some of the parts in German and English, my Turkish isn't up to scratch. I think the film could have been improved if Akin would have explored the characters more than the different themes of the plot. To give one example among many: the main male protagonist, Nejat, is of Turkish origin but a university professor for German literature in Hamburg. His father is a guest worker of humble origins in Bremen who takes up with a prostitute. In their relationship, class, culture and language are clashing. Nejat is a fascinating character, not only standing between German/Turkish identities but also between middle/working class and defending his sensitivity against the macho attitude of his father. Even a sexual rivalry is hinted at. This father and son couple is brilliantly and completely believable played by Baki Davran and Tuncel Kurtizare, but once they get separated in the middle of the film, their plot line simply disappears until the very end. We don't know what motivates Nejat to move to Istanbul or to completely break off with his father. Or why he suddenly decides to make up with him again and searches him out. And even then, Akin denies us the emotional climax of the reunion by letting the film end with the son waiting for his father to come back from fishing. An elegant open ending but a far cry from the raw emotion that characterised "Head On". However, one of the major disappointments in the second half of the film is Hanna Schygulla, Fassbinder's muse, who is strangely wooden throughout her scenes with Nejat, the son, and her daughter's lover, Ayten. At no point is she able to carry the film's high drama. But enough of complaints. Even a slightly failed Faith Akin film is a good film. It's never boring and so beautifully shot that I see my hometown from a different point of view now. And one scene will stick in my mind: a moving car and a moving tram close to each other, the people inside so close and still so far. Just like in real life.
"Auf der anderen Seite" treads on similar ground like his earlier film. His protagonists experience an "amour fous", an unsuitable love and its subsequent loss, the loneliness of being between two cultures and belonging to neither, and the eternal search for "the other place", the place where you belong and can be happy. But "Auf der anderen Seite" is far more ambitious than "Gegen die Wand" as it tells these themes through six different protagonists whose lives are intertwined: two mothers and two daughters and a father and a son. "Auf der anderen Seite" means in this context also to understand the "other side", your parent or your child. And it also means the understanding between Turkish and German people who are the main protagonists here. However, it is the film's ambitious multi-protagonist structure that prevents it from being truly great and moving. If you think "Traffic" was constructed, think again. In this film, there are even more coincidences, most of them unlucky. The most annoying side effect of this multi-structure is the fact the characters stay rather flat and feel constructed despite the good acting. It doesn't really help that Faith Akin's dialogue seems to be rather on the wooden side to me - at least some of the parts in German and English, my Turkish isn't up to scratch. I think the film could have been improved if Akin would have explored the characters more than the different themes of the plot. To give one example among many: the main male protagonist, Nejat, is of Turkish origin but a university professor for German literature in Hamburg. His father is a guest worker of humble origins in Bremen who takes up with a prostitute. In their relationship, class, culture and language are clashing. Nejat is a fascinating character, not only standing between German/Turkish identities but also between middle/working class and defending his sensitivity against the macho attitude of his father. Even a sexual rivalry is hinted at. This father and son couple is brilliantly and completely believable played by Baki Davran and Tuncel Kurtizare, but once they get separated in the middle of the film, their plot line simply disappears until the very end. We don't know what motivates Nejat to move to Istanbul or to completely break off with his father. Or why he suddenly decides to make up with him again and searches him out. And even then, Akin denies us the emotional climax of the reunion by letting the film end with the son waiting for his father to come back from fishing. An elegant open ending but a far cry from the raw emotion that characterised "Head On". However, one of the major disappointments in the second half of the film is Hanna Schygulla, Fassbinder's muse, who is strangely wooden throughout her scenes with Nejat, the son, and her daughter's lover, Ayten. At no point is she able to carry the film's high drama. But enough of complaints. Even a slightly failed Faith Akin film is a good film. It's never boring and so beautifully shot that I see my hometown from a different point of view now. And one scene will stick in my mind: a moving car and a moving tram close to each other, the people inside so close and still so far. Just like in real life.