elasmarhadi
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. "Fatih Akin" succeeded to mix different characters and stories and even cultures to create a superb film that will make you admire the subtle crossroad of the stories evoked in such great dexterity. This movie deals with love, hope and freedom in a unique and clever way - not in a shallow "deja-vu" way.Although there's many different characters, these pieces of the story create a single magnificent puzzle of emotions and stories- one could call it fate. Akin will keep you mesmerized during all the movie with a great cast that radiate energy and truthfulness. you'll certainly be attached to all of them and to all of their stories. The script is very well written and elaborated along with a remarkable cinematography. But what makes you truly fall in love with this movie is for sure the ending. A creative and well thought ending that will not bring much to the story but at the same time will make it so rich and unforgettable. It will keep the story running in your mind and make you wonder about how every meeting with someone, is a crossroad - or even a turning point in your life. I've said earlier that this movie is about love, hope and freedom, but what really this movie is about life - or it is the same thing, isn't it?
platinumpyrrs
This movie has some powerful scenes. Lotte running through the streets in the stark sunlight, chasing someone she does not know because she is so in love. Found that unforgettable. Had not seen the actress playing Lotte before; she has a great face for cinema. Great casting here, all the actors faces under the microscope, most actors faces showing depth and compassion. Especially Yeter and Lotte. Also, Susanne and Nejat, the ones who find mutually satisfying relationship in conclusion. My kind of movie, I must say. Believable, honest, emotional, driven by the longing of the human heart.PS. Also liked the scene where Nejat is driving through tunnels; the first one has light at the end. Then he enters one that is dark and the scene shifts. He is taking a risk to change his life away from the mundane, to find connections to his heart. He is a likable character, balanced and patient, but also brave. Also liked Yeter's deep dignity under her protective surface. Actress playing Yeter is superb on the bus when accosted by two #$$*oles. Memorable.
thecatcanwait
Was this going to be a keeper or be binned?Its all symmetrically constructed and contrived. A thick interwoven political seam is tying the film tidily too together. Narrative is jigsawed into precisely fitted – i.e engineered – plot pieces. Turkey bits slot into Germany bits and Germany bits get stuffed neatly into the Turkey bits (Lol)When a story gets to be too structured by coincidence it feels artificial. Life – authentic vitally lived life, in the raw, in the real – isn't scripted into tight predetermined plots.Seeing this confirmed a prejudice: the Turkish male attitude towards women (ok, thighbooted Turkish whores) is "I own you" = I'll slap you. Or we'll throw The Koran at you. Typically patriarchal and unsurprisingly chauvinistic. Therefore let Turkish women radicalise themselves, be running amok with guns. And love only women.(male Turkish Professors reading German are excepted, as they've liberated themselves via Goethe )The Turkish/Germany divide is suitably, equally, uniformly, intertwined. Commendable it is. Which is another way of saying worthy. But dull. Ken Loach would be proud.It's in the bin.
random_avenger
With a small scale ensemble cast, The Edge of Heaven examines several themes through the lives of the many characters. Nejat Aksu (Baki Davrak) is a professor of literature in a German university and not happy about his father Ali's new live-in partner Yeter (Nursel Köse), a prostitute who Ali (Tuncel Kurtiz) has hired to stay with him. Yeter has an estranged daughter Ayten (Nurgül Yesilçay) who Nejat decides to track down in Turkey after a tragedy occurs in the family. However, unbeknownst to Yeter and Nejat, Ayten has already traveled to Germany to look for her mother and seek a refugee status as she is a member of a rebellious activist group in Turkey. In Germany she meets a female student Charlotte (Patrycia Ziolkowska) who offers her a place to stay and eventually follows her back to Turkey, much to her mother Susanne's (Hanna Schygulla) chagrin.The two main story lines (those of Nejat / Yeter and Ayten / Charlotte) are presented after each other in a clear manner but the stories intertwine in many ways, often unnoticed by the characters, creating an extra feel of tragedy – the answer would be so close if only they knew each other! Besides the smaller instances of bad luck, the deaths of major characters are what end up driving the plot forwards, but in the end the message is hopeful; an understanding is what everybody is ultimately seeking.Akin's calm direction and the good performances throughout easily raise The Edge of Heaven among the best Turkish films I've seen (even though I have only seen a handful). The themes of finding one's true calling in life, the forgiving nature of parent–child relationships and the subpar human rights situation in Turkey are all explored without haste, always maintaining the balance between the different aspects of the story. For anyone who hasn't seen many Turkish films, The Edge of Heaven could be a good starting place, but I imagine it is also worth seeing for those more familiar with the country's cinema.
AD
