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The Edge of Heaven

Auf der anderen Seite

Germany, Turkey, Italy

2007

122 Min
Color
1.85:1
German, Turkish, English
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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DIR Fatih Akin

PROD Fatih Akin, Klaus Maeck, Andreas Thiel, Jeanette Würl

SCR Fatih Akin

DP Rainer Klausmann

CAST Nurgül Yeşilçay, Baki Davrak, Tuncel Kurtiz, Hanna Schygulla, Patrycia Ziolkowska, Nursel Köse

ED Andrew Bird

PROD DES Sirma Bradley, Tamo Kunz

MUSIC Shantel

SOUND Ahmt Sut Alban, Andreas Hildebrandt, Jörg Krieger

Cannes (In Competition): Best Screenplay, London (Film on the Square), Toronto (Contemporary World Cinema), Berlinale (German Cinema), Karlovy Vary (Open Eyes), Vancouver (Special Presentations), San Francisco (World Cinema), São Paulo, BAFICI (Trayectorias), Berlinale (Homage)

Synopsis

An ensemble film that tells the story of several people from Germany and Turkey who do not know each other but whose paths cross fatefully. One of them is Susanne Staub, whose daughter Charlotte has fallen in love with the young Turkish activitst Ayten Öztürk. When the young activist is deported back to Turkey from Germany, Charlotte follows her, but is killed. Susanne also decides to go to Istanbul, where she finds support from Nejat Aksu, a German language and literature professor of Turkish descent. For his part, Nejat is hoping to find the missing Ayten – but he has no idea of the relationship between any of the stakeholders. –Berlinale

Director

Original

Fatih Akin

Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage. He began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg’s College of Fine Arts in 1994. His collaboration with Wüste Film also dates from this time. In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, Sensin – You’re The One! (Sensin – Du Bist Es!), which received the Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. His second short film, Weed (Getuerkt, 1996), received several national and international festival prizes. His first full length feature film, Short Sharp Shock (Kurz Und Schmerzlos, 1998) won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Director) in 1998. His other films include: In July (Im Juli, 2000), Wir Haben Vergessen Zurueckzukehren (2001), Solino (2002), the Berlinale Golden Bear-winner and winner of the German and European Film Awards Head-On (Gegen Die Wand, 2003), and Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul (2005). —World Cinema Foundation read more

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Nutter Jr

11May13

A number of people started comparing The Edge of Heaven to Babel/Crash and other vertebrate type storylines alike. And even though there is a structural resemblance, the director Akin, a prodigy of immigration himself, makes a movie oozing nostalgia for home; in one thread home is the love of one's life, in another it is the country of origin, in the other one the bosom of a woman & in another belonging to a cause.

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Dizzydent

7Apr12

Loved the use of time, space and intersecting stories. What's left out is as important as what's on screen. A lesson in great story telling.

tartusnaeme and Aram like this

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Matthew Martens

9Feb12

Simultaneously an exercise in rigorous formalism and an affecting examination of individual lives lived across the tension lines extending between Germany and Turkey, The Edge of Heaven somewhat undermines its depiction of the messiness of the latter through an over-meticulous commitment to the former. Still, a clever and moving piece of filmmaking, with a quietly bravura finale.

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Joe

2Feb12

Not a bad movie. A little prone to disjunctive tangents, but it seems like that's what the director was comfortable with. He could have surely made a more intense movie using just one of the three parts. I was very drawn to the life of the university professor, but by that point, the film does a complete 180 and follows another person in another direction. Unfortunately, this sacrifices the depth of them all.

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

The Auteurs Daily: Venice and Toronto. Soul Kitchen

By David Hudson on September 13, 2009

  Fatih Akin's Soul Kitchen won the Special Jury Prize in Venice and screens today, tomorrow and Saturday in Toronto. "So over-the

read article

BERLIN & BEYOND 2008—The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite / Yasamin kiyisinda)

By Twitchfilm.com on May 17, 2011
Fatih Akin’s The Edge of Heaven was not originally slated to open next month’s Berlin & Beyond—Yella reserved that honor—but, once Ingrid Eggers, Program Coordinator for the Goethe-institut, learned Strand
→ read on Twitchfilm.com

BERLIN & BEYOND 2008—The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite / Yasamin kiyisinda)

By Twitchfilm.net on July 17, 2010
Fatih Akin’s The Edge of Heaven was not originally slated to open next month’s Berlin & Beyond—Yella reserved that honor—but, once Ingrid Eggers, Program Coordinator for the Goethe-institut, learned Strand
→ read on Twitchfilm.net

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Reviews

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Untitled

By Sertan Özbay on August 26, 2008

Für mich ist Fatih Akin zur Zeit der aktiv talentierteste FilmRegieseur und Drehbuchautor Europas. In Deutschland ist Fatih ein ehrenwürdiger Nachfolger von R.W.Fassbinder und Volker Schlöndorf…  read review

Untitled

By Lena on August 7, 2008

I loved this film, the first of Akin’s I have seen. But now I will find and see the rest and look forward to his next.

His characters are so believable and sympathetic, even a bristly one like…  read review

Untitled

By Halim Cillov on April 30, 2008

Fatih Akin, the prodigy director of the internationally acclaimed ‘Gegen Die Wand’ (Head-On), 2004’s Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear Winner, returns to the silver screens with another remarkable…  read review

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