Forgiveness, redemption, repentance, and connection form interweaving themes of Faith Akin's complex and multi-layered film The Edge of Heaven. Titled On the Other Side in German, the film is primarily character-driven but is shaped by political, cultural, and family conflict that illuminate the struggle between first and second-generation Turks and Germans and their loneliness in exile. Akin builds his narrative on elaborate coincidences, yet his characters are drawn with such nuance that we willingly go where he takes us without questioning. Though The Edge of Heaven is a realistic drama, shifts in the timeline and dreamlike visions introduce surreal touches that serve to enhance its intensity.
Moving between Germany and Turkey, The Edge of Heaven is divided into three sections, two revealing a crucial plot point in its inter-title. In the first section, Nejat (Baki Davrak), a second-generation Turk, is a university professor in Hamburg, Germany. He is close to his father Ali (Tuncel Turkiz), a lonely widower who is a frequent visitor to the red-light districts of Hamburg. When he falls for Yeter (Nursel Kose), a Turkish prostitute, he asks her to move in with him and have sex whenever he wants. When Yeter is intimidated by two Turkish fundamentalists on the bus because of her profession, she decides to accept his offer. Nejat also takes a liking to her and comforts her when she cries over her estrangement from her 27-year-old daughter Ayten (Nurgul Yesilcay) whom she has lost contact with in Istanbul.
After a tragic accident in his home, Nejat travels to Istanbul to try and locate Ayten to help her in her education, purchasing a small bookstore while giving up his teaching job in Hamburg. What he doesn't know is that Ayten, a militant political activist, has fled Turkey and returned to Germany to find her mother and seek asylum. In Part Two, Ayten meets Lotte (Patrycia Zlolkowska), a German student without clear direction in her life. To the consternation of Lotte's more conservative mother Susanne, brilliantly performed by former Fassbinder star Hanna Schygulla, they move in together, forming a passionate sexual relationship. Letting down her guard when stopped by police for a routine traffic inspection, Ayten is arrested and sent back to Turkey after her request for asylum is denied on the grounds that since Turkey has applied for admission to the European Union it could not be a threat to her safety.
When Lotte soon follows her to Istanbul, another shocking incident is precipitated and the final chapter follows the characters as they deal with personal tragedy and seek reconciliation. In The Edge of Heaven, the 34-year-old Akin has vaulted into the elite group of international directors whose films have a universal appeal. It is not only that he is willing to confront serious issues but that his characters are three-dimensional human beings who we believe in and care about regardless of their politics. The Edge of Heaven will have you applauding not only for an emotional power reminiscent of Kieslowski, but for its message of forgiveness and empathy, offered without pandering or sentimentality.
Moving between Germany and Turkey, The Edge of Heaven is divided into three sections, two revealing a crucial plot point in its inter-title. In the first section, Nejat (Baki Davrak), a second-generation Turk, is a university professor in Hamburg, Germany. He is close to his father Ali (Tuncel Turkiz), a lonely widower who is a frequent visitor to the red-light districts of Hamburg. When he falls for Yeter (Nursel Kose), a Turkish prostitute, he asks her to move in with him and have sex whenever he wants. When Yeter is intimidated by two Turkish fundamentalists on the bus because of her profession, she decides to accept his offer. Nejat also takes a liking to her and comforts her when she cries over her estrangement from her 27-year-old daughter Ayten (Nurgul Yesilcay) whom she has lost contact with in Istanbul.
After a tragic accident in his home, Nejat travels to Istanbul to try and locate Ayten to help her in her education, purchasing a small bookstore while giving up his teaching job in Hamburg. What he doesn't know is that Ayten, a militant political activist, has fled Turkey and returned to Germany to find her mother and seek asylum. In Part Two, Ayten meets Lotte (Patrycia Zlolkowska), a German student without clear direction in her life. To the consternation of Lotte's more conservative mother Susanne, brilliantly performed by former Fassbinder star Hanna Schygulla, they move in together, forming a passionate sexual relationship. Letting down her guard when stopped by police for a routine traffic inspection, Ayten is arrested and sent back to Turkey after her request for asylum is denied on the grounds that since Turkey has applied for admission to the European Union it could not be a threat to her safety.
When Lotte soon follows her to Istanbul, another shocking incident is precipitated and the final chapter follows the characters as they deal with personal tragedy and seek reconciliation. In The Edge of Heaven, the 34-year-old Akin has vaulted into the elite group of international directors whose films have a universal appeal. It is not only that he is willing to confront serious issues but that his characters are three-dimensional human beings who we believe in and care about regardless of their politics. The Edge of Heaven will have you applauding not only for an emotional power reminiscent of Kieslowski, but for its message of forgiveness and empathy, offered without pandering or sentimentality.