The Edge of Heaven (film)

: "This article is on the film by Fatih Akın. For the song by Wham!, see "The Edge of Heaven"."

Infobox Film
name = The Edge of Heaven(international title)Auf der anderen Seite(original title)


image_size =
caption = German promotional poster
director = Fatih Akın
producer = Anka Film (Turkey),
Corazón International (Germany),
Dorje Film (Italy),
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) (Germany)
writer = Fatih Akın
narrator =
starring = Nurgül Yeşilçay
Baki Davrak
Tuncel Kurtiz
Hanna Schygulla
Patrycia Ziolkowska
Nursel Köse
music = Shantel
cinematography = Rainer Klausmann
editing = Andrew Bird
distributor = The Match Factory (worldwide) Sharmill Films (Australia)
released = May 23, 2007 (Cannes Film Festival)
September 27, 2007 (Germany)
October 26, 2007 (Turkey)
February 15, 2008 (United Kingdom)
April 24, 2008 (Australia)
runtime = 122 min.
country = Germany/Turkey
language = German/Turkish/English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.auf-der-anderen-seite.de/
amg_id = 1:398836
imdb_id = 0880502

"The Edge of Heaven" (international English title) (original title _de. Auf der anderen Seite, _tr. Yaşamın Kıyısında) is a 2007 Turkish-German film written and directed by Fatih Akın. The film won the Prix du scénario at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. It was selected for Germany's entry to contest at the 2007 Oscar [ [http://www1.ndr.de/unternehmen/presse/pressemitteilungen/pressemeldungndr560.html NDR Press notice September 19, 2007] de icon] but didn't make the selection of five nominated films.

After making its worldwide debut at Cannes Film Festival in France, the filmwas shown at several international film festivals. It was released in Germany on September 27, 2007.

Synopsis

"The Edge of Heaven" is played out in Turkey and Germany. The characters travel between these countries and so travel through their own lives. Akın tells the story in calm pictures, unagitated and slow-paced. The emotional key to the film is death which is faced by each protagonist in a different way. Thus those initially uncommunicative people slowly begin to uncover themselves.

Plot

Retired widower Ali, a Turkish immigrant living in the German city of Bremen, believes to have found a solution to his loneliness as he meets Turkey-born prostitute Yeter [Yeter ("Enough") and İmdat ("Emergency") are names of choice among families with too many children.] .

He offers her a monthly payment to quit whoring and move in. After receiving threats from two radical islamic turkish thugs, she decides to accept his offer. His son Nejat, a professor of German literature, initially disapproves of Ali's choice of Yeter as a live-in girlfriend. However, he grows fond of her when he discovers that she sends money back home to Turkey for her daughter's college education.

Tension arises between Nejat and his father as Ali becomes obsessed that Yeter and his son may have become lovers. Yeter's sudden death, an accident caused by a drunken blow from Ali, serves to distance father and son further from each other emotionally. Ali is imprisoned and later deported to Turkey where he returns to his home town Trabzon on the Black Sea.

Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter's daughter Ayten and hopes to help pay for her education. He soon decides to settle in Turkey, running the German bookshop in Istanbul - in order to find Ayten, and also because being in Turkey reawakens his Turkish identity and makes him dissatisifed with the role teaching young Germans about Goethe (as he is shown doing in the early part of the film).

He is not aware of the fact that political activist Ayten is on the run from the Turkish police and is currently staying in Germany, hiding as an illegal immigrant and searching for her mother - nor that she had been present in one of his own lectures, sleeping in a corner of the lecure hall.

Penniless Ayten becomes friends and lovers with Lotte, a student who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home, a gesture which is not particularly welcome by her mother Susanne. Lotte decides to help Ayten search for her mother, who she believes works as a shoemaker. While driving, Lotte and Ayten are stopped in a regular police check and Ayten runs from the car. She is caught and the police learn of her false identity.

Lotte closely follows her plea for asylum, which is denied several months later, despite Susanne's financial support. Following her deportation Ayten is imprisoned in Turkey, where she befriends other political prisoners, as well as women imprisoned for killing their husbands.

Lotte travels to Turkey to free Ayten but quickly realises how little hope there is, as she is facing 15 to 20 years in jail. Over the telephone, Susanne pleads her to think of her future and return home. When Lotte refuses, her mother withdraws her financial support. She gets to know Nejat by chance and rents a room in his home to save expensive hotel costs.

Meeting Ayten in prison, Lotte follows her improprisoned lover's request and collects a gun hidden in a secret place. After doing that, Lotte's purse, with the gun in it, is snatched by some small boys. She chases them and finds them sniffing glue and looking over the items in her purse; one boy is inspecting the found gun. She demands it back, after which the boy points at her and fires, to his surprise killing her.

Susanne decides to go to Istanbul and see where her daughter has been living these months. After reading her daughter's diary she decides to take on her daughter's mission of freeing Ayten who is awaiting verdict in jail. The death of Lotte is an international incident, and authorities offer Ayten leniance in exchange for information leading to the resolution of the incident. After a visit by Susanne in prison during which she tells Ayten she wants to help her get out of prison, Ayten is so moved that she recants her political activities. As a result she is freed, to the dismay of her fellow activists who brandish her as a traitor.

Susanne offers Ayten a place to stay with her at Nejat's house. Despite crossing paths several times throughout the film, neither Ayten's search for her mother nor Nejat's search for Ayten are ever resolved.

Following emotional moments with Susanne, where her questions regarding Islam causes him to recall childhood memories of his father's love for him, Nejat journeys to reunite with his father, and the film ends with his waiting on the shore for him to come back from fishing in the Black Sea.

Cast

* Tuncel Kurtiz as Ali Aksu, Turkish immigrant
* Baki Davrak as Nejat Aksu, son of Ali, German language teacher
* Nursel Köse as Yeter Öztürk, Turkish immigrant prostitute
* Nurgül Yeşilçay as Ayten Öztürk, daughter of Yeter, Turkish student
* Patrycia Ziolkowska as Charlotte "Lotte" Staub, student
* Hanna Schygulla as Susanne Staub, mother of Lotte

Filming locations

The film was shot in Bremen and Hamburg in Germany; at Taksim and Kadıköy in Istanbul, at the Black Sea coast in Trabzon in Turkey.

Release dates

{| class="wikitable"
-!Region!Date
-
Germany
September 27, 2007
-
Turkey
October 26, 2007
-
Italy
(limited)
November 9, 2007
-
Belgium
rowspan="2"|November 14, 2007
-
France
-
Czech Republic
November 15, 2007
-
Hong Kong
January 24, 2008
-
Netherlands
February 7, 2008
-
United Kingdom
February 15, 2008
-
Republic of China
March 7, 2008
-
Australia
April 24, 2008

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from Western critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 89% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 61 reviews. [cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008246-edge_of_heaven/ |title=The Edge of Heaven Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes |accessdate=2008-05-26 |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 86 out of 100, based on 24 reviews. [cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/edgeofheaven |title=Edge of Heaven, The (2008): Reviews |accessdate=2008-05-26 |publisher=Metacritic]

Awards

Following the Best Screenplay Award received at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Lino Brocka Award in the International Cinema category at the 2007 Cinemanila International Film Festival in the Philippines. The movie also won five awards at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival (best director, editing, supporting actor, supporting actress and special jury award).

On October 24, 2007, the European Parliament awarded its newly established LUX prize for European cinema to Fatih Akın's film.

On November 10, 2007, the film won the Critics Award at the European Cinema Festival, in Seville.

On December 1, 2007, the movie won the best screenplay award at European Film Awards, while it was also nominated for the best director and the best film.

See also

* Cinema of Germany
* Cinema of Turkey

References

External links

* [http://www.auf-der-anderen-seite.de/ Official site] (German)
*imdb title|id=0880502|title=The Edge of Heaven
*rotten-tomatoes|id=10008246-edge_of_heaven|title=The Edge of Heaven
*metacritic film|id=edgeofheaven|title=The Edge of Heaven
*mojo title|id=edgeofheaven|title=The Edge of Heaven
*amg movie|id=1:398836|title=The Edge of Heaven
* [http://www.sharmillfilms.com.au Sharmill Films]