Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Film: Edge of Heaven
Director: Fatih Akin
Cast: Baki Davrak, Nursel Kose, Hanna Schygulla, Tuncel Kurtiz, Nurgul Yesilcay
Rating:
Running at: Fame South City
Ours is a cynical age. Simple human emotions and bonds take a backseat as greater goals are pursued. Mothers abandon daughters to pursue a better future. Random cruelties of life numb us to atrocities and idealism is all but scoffed at. Yet, as German director Fatih Akin8217;s protagonist in his brilliantly structured Edge of Heaven proves, redemption is only a gesture away. Indeed, Akin forges a statement for the world from the intimacies of his characters, and in doing so gives their experience a universal stature.
The film travels between Turkey and Germany to narrate the story of six people who are in a way, victims of the troubled relationship between these countries. Ali Tuncil Kurtiz a retired Turkish immigrant in Germany, brings home a prostitute, Yeter Nursel Korse as a companion. Their shared history she also happens to be Turkish immigrant proves to be another incentive. Ali8217;s son Nejat Baki Davrat initially doesn8217;t seem to be very happy with the arrangement, but warms up to Yeter as he gets to know her better. The relationship between the father and the son get strained as Ali suspects that his son is having an affair with his mistress. In an encounter, he accidentally kills Yeter. In an effort to undo his father8217;s crime, Nejat travels to Turkey to seek out Yeter8217;s daughter and sponsor her studies. Unbeknownst to him, Yeter8217;s daughter Ayten Nurgul Yesilcay is actually in Germany to flee persecution in her own country for being a political activist. As a penniless, illegal immigrant in Germany she is hiding from the police and seeking refuge in abandoned ATM counters, until Lotte Patriciya Ziolkowska befriends her and takes gives her shelter, to the disapproval of her mother Hanna Schygulla.
These two tracks converge in the historic city of Istanbul, which for centuries has been the meeting point of the East and the West. Akin paints a thriving, vibrant city of contradictions where one can peacefully sip chai tea at one corner and be gunned down by street urchins at another. This is why Edge of Heaven can also be seen as an examination of modern Turkey, where Akin illuminates the confrontation between the secular and the extremist Islamic worlds with Pamuk-like precision.
Also illuminating is Akin8217;s generosity of giving his characters the emotional room and the screen-time to grow on you. Never does he let any of them end up as prototypes as they so frequently do in such political films. Take the character of Nejat for instance, as a somewhat uncharismatic professor of Turkish in a German university, he could have been a symbol of declination. Instead Akin empowers him with a redemptive mission. Similarly compassionate is the portrayal of Lotte8217;s mother, a disapproving figure who can8217;t deal with her daughter8217;s obsession with the troublesome Ayten. As she is confronted with a tragedy, she embraces her fate with resilience and character.
But the best thing about Edge of Heaven is the way in which it reveals itself to be a very private testimony. Evidently, Arkin talks about his country/countries from personal experiences and not bookish cockiness.
