| The Edge of Heaven | |
|---|---|
German promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Fatih Akın |
| Produced by | Fatih Akin Klaus Maeck Andreas Thiel Jeanette Würl |
| Written by | Fatih Akın |
| Starring | Nurgül Yeşilçay Baki Davrak Tuncel Kurtiz Hanna Schygulla Patrycia Ziolkowska Nursel Köse |
| Music by | Shantel |
| Cinematography | Rainer Klausmann |
| Editing by | Andrew Bird |
| Studio | Anka Film Corazón International Dorje Film Norddeutscher Rundfunk |
| Distributed by | The Match Factory (worldwide) Strand Releasing (US) |
| Release date(s) | May 23, 2007 (Cannes Film Festival) September 27, 2007 (Germany) October 26, 2007 (Turkey) |
| Running time | 122 minutes |
| Country | Germany Turkey Italy |
| Language | German Turkish English |
| Box office | $17,804,565[1] |
The Edge of Heaven (international English title) (original title German: Auf der anderen Seite, Turkish: Yaşamın Kıyısında) is a 2007 Turkish-German-Italian drama film written and directed by Fatih Akın. The film won the Prix du scénario at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.[2] It was selected for Germany's entry to contest at the 2007 Oscar[3] but didn't make the selection of five nominated films.
After making its worldwide debut at the Cannes Film Festival in France, the film was shown at several international film festivals. It was released in Germany on September 27, 2007.
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Retired widower Ali Aksu (Tuncel Kurtiz), a Turkish immigrant living in the German city of Bremen, believes he has found a solution to his loneliness when he meets a Turkish prostitute, Yeter Öztürk (Nursel Köse). He offers her a monthly payment to stop working as a prostitute and move in with him. After receiving threats from two Turkish Muslims, she decides to accept his offer. Ali's son Nejat (Baki Davrak), a professor of German literature, does not have time to respond to the prospect of living with a woman of "easy virtue" before Ali is stricken with a heart attack. He softens to her when he discovers that she sends shoes back home to Turkey for her 27-year-old daughter and wishes that her daughter receive an education like him.
Back home from the hospital, Ali suspects that the other two may have become lovers. When his drunken demands of Yeter make her threaten to leave, he strikes her, accidentally killing her. Ali is sent to prison.
Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter's daughter, Ayten (Nurgül Yeşilçay), and assume responsibility for her education. Unable to locate her through her family, he posts flyers of Yeter throughout the area in the hopes that it will lead to the daughter. When he posts a flyer in a small German language bookstore that happens to be for sale, he finds himself charmed into buying it.
A plainclothes officer loses his gun on the street during a riot. A hooded figure scoops it up and is pursued on foot by a battalion of uniformed officers, barely managing to hide the contraband on a random rooftop. This is Ayten, a member of a Turkish Communist resistance group.
When her cell is raided, she flees Turkey and takes up a new identity with political allies in Bremen, Germany. However, even there, she has a falling out when she is unable to pay her debts, and thus finds herself on the street with barely a euro to her name. Her mother's number is lost, so she lives illegally and searches for her in local shoe shops.
Lotte, a university student, offers to help her with food, clothes, and a place to stay—a gesture which is not particularly welcomed by her mother, Susanne. Ayten and Lotte become lovers and Lotte decides to help Ayten search for her mother. The quest is cut short when a traffic stop exposes Ayten's illegal status and she attempts a claim of political asylum. Despite Susanne's financial support, Germany rules that Ayten has no legitimate fear of political persecution. She's deported and immediately imprisoned.
Lotte is devastated. She travels to Turkey to try to free Ayten, but quickly realizes how little hope there is, as she is facing 15 to 20 years in jail. Susanne pleads with her to think of her future and return home. When Lotte refuses, her mother refuses to assist her further. Lotte gravitates to Nejat's bookstore and ends up renting a spare room from him.
Finally granted a prison visit with Ayten, Lotte follows her imprisoned lover's request and retrieves the handgun Ayten acquired in the riot. But Lotte's bag, with the gun inside, is snatched by a crew of boys that she chases through their neighborhood. When finally she finds them in a vacant lot, one of the boys is inspecting the gun. She demands he return it, but he points it at her and fires, killing her instantly.
Upon his release, Ali is deported to Turkey, returning to his property in Trabzon on the Black Sea coast.
After her daughter's death, Susanne goes to Istanbul to see where her daughter had been living the past few months. She meets Nejat and reads her daughter's diary; she decides to take on her daughter's mission of freeing Ayten from prison. Susanne's visit to Ayten—an offer of forgiveness and support—leads the younger woman to exercise her right of repentance. As a result, she wins her freedom.
Susanne asks Nejat about the story behind a Bayram they notice, learning that it commemorates Ibrahim's sacrifice of his son Ishmael. She comments that there is the same story in the Bible, where Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. Nejat reminisces about being scared by the story as a child and asking his father if he would sacrifice him if God told him to. When asked by Susanne what his father's answer was, Nejat tells her that his father said "He would make God his enemy in order to protect me".
Nejat removes the poster of Yeter from the shop's noticeboard. He asks Susanne to look after his shop while he is gone, and drives to Trabzon where his father is living.
Susanne offers Ayten a place to stay with her at Nejat's house. When Nejat arrives in Trabzon, his father is out fishing, so he waits for him on the beach.
The production shoot was in Bremen and Hamburg in Germany; at Taksim and Kadıköy in Istanbul, at the Black Sea coast in Trabzon in Turkey.
The film received generally positive reviews from Western critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 89% of critics gave the movie positive reviews, based on 61 reviews.[4] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 86 out of 100, based on 24 reviews.[5]
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[6]
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Following the Best Screenplay Award received at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival,[2] the film won the Lino Brocka Award in the International Cinema category at the 2007 Cinemanila International Film Festival in the Philippines. The film also won five awards at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival (best director, editing, supporting actor, supporting actress and special jury award).
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Volver |
Cannes Film Festival Prix du scénario 2007 |
Succeeded by Le silence de Lorna |
| Preceded by new creation |
Lux Prize for European Cinema 2007 |
Succeeded by Le silence de Lorna |
| Preceded by Takva |
Golden Orange Dr. Avni Tolunay Jury Special Award for Best Picture 2007 |
Succeeded by incumbent |
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