| Edge of Heaven | 
| Director: Fatih Akin
Actors: Nurgul Yesilcay, Baki Davrak, Tuncel Kurtiz, Hanna Schygulla, Patrycia Ziolkowska
Studio: Strand Releasing
Category: DVD
List Price: $27.99
Buy New: $16.35
You Save: $11.64 (42%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (9 reviews)
Sales Rank: 11291
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), German (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD
Running Time: 116 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 2801
UPC: 712267280124
EAN: 0712267280124
ASIN: B001DB6J82
Release Date: October 14, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Fatih Akin, the critically-acclaimed director of HEAD-ON, weaves overlapping tales of friendship and sexuality into a powerful narrative of universal love. Six characters are drawn together by circumstances-an old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together. Akin's piercing sense of the human condition and contemporary world events charge these hyperlinked stories into a multi-cultural powder keg.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Delicate and moving story of fathers and sons and mothers and daughters November 29, 2008
Faith Akin's latest film tells the overlapping stories of six individuals whose lives are caught between Turkey and Germany. A father's careless act sends his son back to their Turkish homeland on a quest for restitution. A daughter's involvement in an anti-government protest that leads to violence forces her to leave her home and search for her estranged mother in Germany. A young German woman's fierce loyalty to her Turkish lover puts her in harm's way. A German mother travels to Turkey in search of a lost daughter.
Each central character is in many ways unsympathetic, and certainly none of them would want or require anyone's pity, yet somehow in the course of the film all had won my profound sympathy and concern. What is remarkable about the film is that the unexpected and unpredictable ways in which their lives connect are depicted in such compelling fashion as to make them feel utterly plausible and profound.
This is a delicate film, more profound and yet more subtle than Akin's previous Head-On [Gegen die Wand] which was much more intense (and quite amazing), yet did not move me as strongly as this one.
I would hate to spoil the many delights of this film by saying much more, but I cannot say enough about how delightful this film really is. Highly recommended for the right kind of viewer. (in Turkish and German w/ English subtitles available)
Prima! November 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This has to be Fatih Akin's best movie yet. Excellent movie with a great soundtrack. We get to see some of the Turkish-German relations. I strongly recommend regardless if you know German or Turkish!
 subtle and very watchable November 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Edge of Heaven, to give you it's correct title, is a film that has received a lot of attention from worldwide film buffs. What you have here is a film that explores identity in a world in which realisations come much too late but, God willing, come.
There are several characters in the film whose stories interconnect and whose lives directly or indirectly affect one another's. The German professor, his father, his father's girlfriend, his father's girlfriend's daughter, his father's girlfriend's daughter's girlfriend...you see where this is going, a domino-like effect in narration which builds up throughout the film.
The Edge of Heaven does not attempt to bash you over the head with its meaning. It takes its time to show you, to move you, and its cinematography is never anything less than beautiful. The actors do a good job (although the Turkish girl is slightly grating) and my personal favourite is the old man: bitter, independent and very much alive.
Comes highly recommended.
Some Keen Observations of Parent Child Relationships October 26, 2008
33 out of 34 found this review helpful
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE) is a superb piece of writing by writer/director Fatih Akin - a study essentially about family fragility and strength as heightened by the immigrant struggles that both bond and divide. It is an intelligent film, well acted, and presented in a challenging manner that defines it as an art film of the first order.
We are given three families to inspect, families whose paths cross not only by coincidence by also by a common 'border' between Germany and Turkey - a division that provides not only tension and emphasis in separation and communication flaws in relationships, but also allows the sensitive cinematographer the opportunity to contrast the dark German portions with the hot light of the Turkish segments.
The film opens innocently enough with a scene where young professor Nejat (Baki Davrak), a Turkish immigrant teaching in Germany, stops for gas - an ordinary event in life that will be recapitulated at movie's close. Nejat's elderly father Ali Aksu (Yuncel Kurtiz) wanders the red light district and encounters a Turkish immigrant hooker Yeter (Nusel Kose) whom he invites to come live with him for the same money that she would make in prostitution. The home setting (Nejat, Ali, Yeter) is flawed and at the moment of dissolution Yeter dies accidentally during an altercation with Ali. Ali is jailed and Nejat feels compelled to go to Istanbul to find and assist Yeter's daughter. Meanwhile Yeter's daughter Ayten (Nurgut Yesilcay) is participating in anti government demonstrations and manages to flee to Germany to find her mother and is befriended by Lotte (Patrycia Ziokowska), a student whose mother Susanne (Hanna Schygulla) disapproves of Lotte's relationship with Ayten. Ayten is forced to flee to Istanbul, Lotte follows and tragedy occurs. In a manner of twists and turns and fast-forwards and reflective moments the three families (Nejat/Ali, Yeter/Ayten, and Susanne/Lotte) intersect, always propelled by the need for acceptance and love and succor.
The levels of interpretation are many and writer/director Fatih Akin serves them well. The superb cinematography is in the masterful hands of Rainer Klausmann and the musical score is enhanced by recordings of a late Turkish artist as integrated by composer Shantel . This is a stunning, fast paced, emotionally involving film filled with pleas of understanding of many problems that daily call for our attention. In Turkish, German an English with subtitles. Grady Harp, October 08
Between Germany and Turkey, Lives Cross Paths and Intertwine. October 24, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
"The Edge of Heaven" is a literally cross-cultural story that hinges on crossed paths between its German and Turkish characters. Deft handling of complexity and coincidence won writer/director Fatih Akin a host of awards in Europe, including Best Screenplay at Cannes, Best Direction at the German Film Awards, and Best Foreign Film at France's Cesars. Ali Aksu (Tuncel Kurtiz), a retired Turkish immigrant in Germany, invites a prostitute named Yeter (Nusel Kose), also a Turkish immigrant, to live with him. Ali's college professor son Nejat (Baki Davrak) is surprised by the arrangement but fond of Yeter. When Yeter dies, Nejat visits Turkey to find her grown daughter Ayten (Nurgut Yesilcay) with the intention of paying for her education. But Ayten's radical political activity have already compelled her to leave Turkey to seek her mother in Germany.
The film's division into four parts, only the last of which is entirely chronological, creates an interesting symmetry. The two central parts address Ali and Yeter's relationship and Ayten's relationship with a sympathetic German university student named Lotte (Patrycia Ziokowska), respectively. Two couples. But the brief opening sequence feels superfluous, as if it has been added only to balance the end of the film. Apart from that, this oddly structured film seems natural even though it relies heavily on coincidences. Two generations cross paths as well as two cultures: What Ali, Yeter, and Lotte's mother Susanne (Hanna Schygulla) want for their children is slyly compared to what Nejat, Ayten, and Lotte want for themselves. "Edge of Heaven" feels like a carefully crafted European character drama with a welcome helping of grit. In German, Turkish, and English with subtitles.
The DVD (Strand Releasing 2008): Bonus features are a theatrical trailer (1 1/2 min) and a documentary entitled "The Making of The Edge of Heaven" (56 min), which is too long but includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with director Fatih Akin. He discusses story, themes, cast, the script, rehearsing, and directing the film. The cast makes some brief appearances. The documentary is in German with English subtitles. The English subtitles for the documentary and for the film cannot be turned off.
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