Edge of Heaven

It's been at least seven or eight years since the last time I saw this marvelous film, but having by chance stumbled on its listing here i took a look at the reader reviews and was generally heartened by their sensitivity and intelligence. The best way for me to sum up this film's quality is to put it very much on a par with another film of that period, The Lives of Others, which I believe to be the best film of the past 25 years. Anyone who knows it will know that to equate them is speaking as highly as one possibly could. about each. If anything this is the more unusual film. It certainly rewards the time spent in watching it.

Complex, intricate story of a German girl who falls in love with a female Turkish revolutionary and pays for this with her life. Ironically, her death frees the other girl from prison. The parallel story is that of a young professor whose father accidentally murders the mother of the Turkish girl. This character, played by Baki Davrak, is the the most sympathetic, and he crosses paths with all the others. Tragically, throughout the story the Turkish mother, a prostitute, is doing everything in her power to find her daughter, and the daughter is looking desperately for her mother. They never meet. Tuncel Kurtz (Maria Braun) plays the german girl's mother. This filmmaker made a bad movie before this, a bad movie after this, and his future is in doubt. But I consider Edge of Heaven ("The Other Side") a masterpiece.

I had watched this years ago when it came out and had won Cannes awards. Its story-telling style (and not so much the plot) had a profound impact on me then. I was delighted to see it was available on Prime video and I watched it again with great satisfaction once more. Great piece of cinema art.

This is a PG-13 movie if concerned regarding rating. I liked the acting and the script. There are many plot changes so it keeps the movie interesting. I enjoyed the scenes filmed in Turkey. I think they present a credible depiction of life in Turkey. But wasn't "wowed" by this movie and not sure I want to see it again. It involves 3 families that move between Turkey and Germany. All experience tragedy and how they cope with the family tragedy determines the direction of the movie.

THIS KIND OF MOVIE-MAKING SEEMS LIKE "LITERATURE" ON FILM AND I LOVE THIS KIND BEST. IT TAKES YOU AWAY AND BRINGS YOU INTO THE NOVEL, THE STORY, WITH THE PEOPLE ON FILM. I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS MOVIE BECAUSE IT WAS MORE LIKE AN EXPERIENCE THAN JUST ENTERTAINMENT. BRAVO!!! VERY MATURE ESPECIALLY THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS AND THE FATHER AND SON. VERY CLEAR, EVEN PRECISE, JUST ALL-AROUND REAL AND REVEALING. THANK YOU. GOOD JOB. -MO

There are a lot of films nowadays that use this fragmented interwoven storytelling structure. Some of those films really work, and others fall flat thanks to misapplied similarities and lack of depth in character development. `The Edge of Heaven' is compelling and affecting despite moments that seem too preposterous for their own good. Fatih Akin knows how to wrap this story around itself in a way that builds depth in areas that feel somewhat shallow. In other words, this is an example of a film working and then again, not working in nearly the same breath. The film tells three separate stories. One is of a man who is desperately trying to right the wrongs of his father, an elderly drunk who manhandles and accidentally kills a prostitute he tried to pull out of the gutter. Ashamed of his father's actions, this man goes out on a journey to find this dead prostitutes daughter. The second story is of that daughter, a political rebel who manages to escape Germany and is trying to find her mother when she meets and falls into a relationship with the naïve Lotte. Lotte's mother is not happy about this relationship, and she propels the final story, that of a woman attempting to pick up broken pieces of tragedy. All three of these lives collide in different ways, and yet no one knows of the importance of their union. I found the construction of the film to be a little convoluted in parts and a tad choppy in others, and yet I have a ton of respect for the approach taken to the film's conclusion and mostly that third `story', which is fleshed out beautifully in a few small moments. Overall, `The Edge of Heaven' is sincere enough to work, despite scenario flaws, but the film's opening story feels a bit forced when placed up against the second and third, and the lack of balance when portraying the amount of tragedy in one particular `circle' seemed off kilter at times. It just seems to be trying to say something a little harder than it should. And yet that final moment on the beach seems like such a marvelous way to conclude such a grisly tale.

We have been closely watching everything made by Fatih Akin in last a few years. This is one of his best. It is a very interesting story. Fatih Akin touches every taboo subject in Turkish culture and almost forces Turkish society to face with its controversial dealings. I recommend this film to anyone who wants to know more about Turkish/German cultural integrations and clashes.

The plot is believable and the characters well fleshed out. Like life, people are imperfect, random things happen and loose ends do not always connect. And if you like the music songs by Kazim Koyoncu is available on Amazon Music.

Some movie experiences allow you take from them whatever you want. The Edge of Heaven is a film that allows you do to just that, a film that deals with either fate or coincidence, depending on how you want to look at it. The film, written and directed by Fatih Akin, deals with the separate yet intertwined lives of a group of individuals as they fall in and out of each other's influence. Picking up with a rather straight forward assignation between ageing Turkish widower Ali (Tuncel Kurtiz) and Yeter (Nursel Kose), a Turkish prostitute, this unremarkable arrangement will have enormous ramifications for three different families. Both Ali and Yeter are displaced from their homeland and now find themselves living in Germany, and it is this sense of dislocation that initially drives Ali into Yeters arms. However, when Ali begins to fall for this woman much younger than him and suggests that she move in with him, things take an unexpected and tragic turn, an event that leads Ali's son Nejat (Baki Davrak) back to his homeland in search of someone he does not even know. Alongside this story is the parallel but apparently separate story of Ayten (Nurgul Yesilcay), a young Turkish woman who flees her home country following a run in with the authorities (she is a political activist, although later in the film much of her politics is revealed to be simple posturing). Finding herself in Germany, she meets a young German student named Lotte (Yelda Reynaud), and the two women strike up a very physical relationship. When circumstance conspires to have Ayten returned to Turkey, Lotte is determined to help, something that will also have tragic consequences for these two. The main crux of the film is how these two apparently separate stories intertwine across two continents, apparently at random. Told slowly over a long period of time, the characters within the movie meet and separate, often without realising the importance of their meetings. This can be seen as fate if you want to take it that way, or it can be mere coincidence, which is how this reviewer prefers to think of it. On top of this main topic, the film also deals with the nature of love, grief, honesty, betrayal and persecution, but ultimately this is all about forgiveness, both the old for the young and the young for the old, a particularly satisfying denouement. Director Akin handles the film with a lovely sense of control, allowing the film to move along at a pace that appears to be slow but is always engrossing, handling the multi- stranded plot line with a fine touch, and although some of the coincidences within the film (particularly the blink and you will miss them moments) sometimes seem a little contrived, this is a minor niggle. On top of this, the acting on show is top notch, particularly the older actors, Tuncel Kurtiz as the fantastically portrayed Ali, and a riveting turn from Hanna Schygulla in the initially minor role of Lotte's mother Suzanne, who's quest for understanding forms the real heart of the film, and also gives us many of the films finest moments. This is not a film for everyone, requiring a commitment from the viewer that some people will find it impossible to give. Slow moving and thoughtful, dealing with important matters in an intelligent and absorbing way, this is a wonderfully rewarding experience that I cannot recommend highly enough.

トルコ系ドイツ人映画監督ファティ・アキンの『そして私たちは愛にかえる』を観る。イタリア系映画のような、ペーソスに溢れた人生劇である。優秀な息子とダメな親爺、ドイツとトルコで離れ離れで暮らす売春婦の母親と反政治活動に身を投じている娘、そしてオープンな世界観を擁するドイツ人の母親と娘。この三者三様の片親と親子が、お互い関係することで大きく、彼ら・彼女らの人生は展開していく。それは、悲劇的ではあるが、その悲劇が展開する過程でこれら他人が知り合うことで観ている側は救われる。違う国籍、違う価値観の人々が交錯することで、無情にも人が死んでしまうという理不尽の中でも、人は明日に希みを持つことができるような印象を観る者に与える。ラストシーンの静かな映像は百の言葉より多くのことを語る。

Extraordinaria, sensible película 🎥 de Akin.

Une mise en scène superbe dans ce film qui se passe alternativement d'un coté, puis de l'autre (en Allemagne et en Turquie). Ce film dresse des portraits croisés de trois jeunes ( une étudiante turque révolutionnaire recherchée par la police en turquie, un jeune prof d'université allemande originaire de turquie et une étudiante allemande baroudeuse et passionnée) ainsi que d'un de leurs parents. Leurs chemins se croiseront et leurs destins seront différents... Les portraits sont justes et sensibles et les différences entre les deux pays apparaissent sans caricature. A voir absolument

Set in contemporary Germany and Turkey this is a fascinating, complex and poignant film involving six principal characters (two mothers, two daughters, a father and a son), some of whom meet and others who are separated by distance, time and circumstances. The narrative is non-linear and despite some blatantly contrived coincidences where the stories of the protagonists conveniently overlap the overall result is an intelligent, empathetic and contemplative exploration of identity. Each character is believable and flawed, making decisions and mistakes, living with regret and hope, making and missing connections and experiencing and surviving tragic unexpected events. As you would expect, the pace of the narrative is slow and compelling with the acting suitably understated and quietly powerful, while the cinematography effectively conveys a sense of place whether it is the urban bustle of Bremen and Istanbul or the rural idyll of Trabzon. This is an impressive film with an even more impressive ending.