User Reviews

"Auf der anderen Seite" means "on the other side", or "on the other hand", and in Faith Akin's latest film we see two parallel narratives develop, overlap and intertwine until they very much become one.

While some other viewers seem to have found the film's reliance on coincidence enervating, I found that it was a classical poetic device. As in all great art, the question is not whether the events are convincing, but whether the people stuck in these events are convincing, and in Akim's film they are.

What can you say about a film with a cast as strong as this? Hanna Schygulla, especially, offers a stunning performance, but the rest of the ensemble is also very impressive.

Finally the film is a meditation on what divides cultures and what divides the generations. A Turkish son finds it in his heart to forgive his father, a German mother decides to forgive and help her daughter's Turkish lover.

In order to make it to the other side, beyond anger and towards understanding and forgiveness, you need to overcome yourself and be open to what the world can give even when it has taken so much away. Faith Akin knows how to tell this story in a way that is both heartbreaking and uplifting. A great film and an important film.

Justice cannot be done to this extraordinary movie that won the best screenplay award in Cannes by a few paragraphs of comments. For one thing, its content is so exceptionally rich that receptive audiences will find themselves thinking about the movies days, maybe even weeks, after watching it. Many compare it to "Babel" but that is superficial. Unlike in "Babel" and many similar movies where threads connecting the three separate stories are haphazard, the lives of the six protagonists in the three stories of "The edge of heaven" are truly interwoven. And there are no melodramatic contrivances and twist like the ones that drag down "The kite runner" a few notches.

While different audiences will focus on different things (political conflict, caltural clash, sexual orientation, remorse and atonement, dispair and hope), this is first and foremost three father-son and mother-daughter stories. German father-and-son pair has Ali the common, earthy retired father and Nejat educated college professor son. Their relationship could have been at least civil and cordial had not the old man's sexual pursuits become increasingly irritating to Nejat. Also German are Susanne and Lotte, in a situation that is not at all uncommon, mother's tradition values against somewhat rebellious daughter. The third pair is Turkish mother Yeter who is very easy to sympathize with, a woman who wants so much for her daughter to escape the vicious cycle of poverty and poor education that she goes to German to become a prostitute to finance Ayten's education back in Turkey. The cruel irony is while Yeter's secret is harmless, Ayten's is not: she is a member of a militant underground resistance group.

The way these three pairs are connect is quite complex but not it any way contrived. It will do both the writer and the audience an injustice to try to describe the award winning plot in the context of IMDb user comments. Suffices to say that the two main connecting points are that Yeter/Ali and Ayten/Lotte. In the first case, after providing sex service to Ali for a period of time, Yeter comes to live with him as his woman. In the second case, Ayten, trying to seek political asylum in Germany, encounters Lotte and they become lovers. These two situations, expectedly, meet with disapprovals from Nejat and Susanne respectively. Two accidental deaths set off a chain of complicated events that see the remaining four characters converging in Turkey.

The story is told in a simple, straightforward fashion that set European films apart from staple Hollywood. "Simple" here is complimentary, as you'll understand after having indigestion from artificial, formulaic Hollywood treatments (e.g. blood seeping out from a body on the floor to make sure that the audience understand that its occupant is dead). This does not mean that cinematic montages are not used. It's just that they are not over-used and are used only at the right time. One example is when Susanne is in a hotel room in Turkey at the beginning of the third "chapter" (there are written chapter titles on the screen at the start of each). Another is the voice-over announcing refusal to Ayten's asylum request overlapping with Lotte's argument with Susanne before leaving home for Turkey.

Spoiler warning notwithstanding, I have already said too much about the movie that is much better left to be enjoyed by the audience as the stories unfold.

(1) The single quality of this movie, as with all great art, is "what is NOT said/shown", but what the viewer has to make up in his own mind. This being a German movie, could it also be necessary to go back those 30 years, when Susanne (Hanna Schygulla's character) went hiking to India, so mid- to late 1970's. Could she have been this bit leftist-leaning person ? This could explain her resolve finally to support Ayten - after the EU/Turkey argument - and also the break-up with the completely absent husband, Lotte's father (only hinted at in the phone booth sequence). (2) The "Bayram/Abraham's sacrifice" (starts at scene one !) is the key underlying the film and uniting the countries and the characters: /SPOILER/ every one of them is responsible for killing whom he/she likes most but you can repent already "on this side".

I just watched "Auf der anderen Seite" (Edge of Heaven)in a cinema in Bremen, not too far from where some of the scenes in the first part have been shot. (Well, if you have to know it, they are the ones with the prostitutes and the shoe shop ;). I am a huge fan of Faith Akin's work ever since I saw "Head On" (Gegen die Wand) which is in my view one of the best films that has come out of Germany in a decade and certainly could hold its own against Oscar winner "The Lives of Others". If you have a chance to get it on DVD, I would strongly recommend to rent it out.

"Auf der anderen Seite" treads on similar ground like his earlier film. His protagonists experience an "amour fous", an unsuitable love and its subsequent loss, the loneliness of being between two cultures and belonging to neither, and the eternal search for "the other place", the place where you belong and can be happy. But "Auf der anderen Seite" is far more ambitious than "Gegen die Wand" as it tells these themes through six different protagonists whose lives are intertwined: two mothers and two daughters and a father and a son. "Auf der anderen Seite" means in this context also to understand the "other side", your parent or your child. And it also means the understanding between Turkish and German people who are the main protagonists here. However, it is the film's ambitious multi-protagonist structure that prevents it from being truly great and moving. If you think "Traffic" was constructed, think again. In this film, there are even more coincidences, most of them unlucky. The most annoying side effect of this multi-structure is the fact the characters stay rather flat and feel constructed despite the good acting. It doesn't really help that Faith Akin's dialogue seems to be rather on the wooden side to me - at least some of the parts in German and English, my Turkish isn't up to scratch. I think the film could have been improved if Akin would have explored the characters more than the different themes of the plot. To give one example among many: the main male protagonist, Nejat, is of Turkish origin but a university professor for German literature in Hamburg. His father is a guest worker of humble origins in Bremen who takes up with a prostitute. In their relationship, class, culture and language are clashing. Nejat is a fascinating character, not only standing between German/Turkish identities but also between middle/working class and defending his sensitivity against the macho attitude of his father. Even a sexual rivalry is hinted at. This father and son couple is brilliantly and completely believable played by Baki Davran and Tuncel Kurtizare, but once they get separated in the middle of the film, their plot line simply disappears until the very end. We don't know what motivates Nejat to move to Istanbul or to completely break off with his father. Or why he suddenly decides to make up with him again and searches him out. And even then, Akin denies us the emotional climax of the reunion by letting the film end with the son waiting for his father to come back from fishing. An elegant open ending but a far cry from the raw emotion that characterised "Head On". However, one of the major disappointments in the second half of the film is Hanna Schygulla, Fassbinder's muse, who is strangely wooden throughout her scenes with Nejat, the son, and her daughter's lover, Ayten. At no point is she able to carry the film's high drama. But enough of complaints. Even a slightly failed Faith Akin film is a good film. It's never boring and so beautifully shot that I see my hometown from a different point of view now. And one scene will stick in my mind: a moving car and a moving tram close to each other, the people inside so close and still so far. Just like in real life.

We first saw this wonderful film last year when it first came out, but didn't comment on it. The first indication about its excellence was this was the work of director Faith Akin, a man that keeps surprising with every new film he makes. (For some reason the IMDb program likes to misspell the director's given name and turns into Faith) Mr. Akin, who wrote the screenplay, takes us to a fantastic trip interspersed with pain, regrets,and finally redemption. The film is divided into three sections. Bear in mind that the lives examined in the film interconnect in mysterious ways. Each vignette has a theme, and although not related, they bear similarities and even there is a connection between the characters. "The Edge of the World" is a character study of two cultures that are so incredibly different, and yet, they have a lot in common.

Basically, the film tackles the relationship between parents and children. In the case of Ali and Nejat, their easy camaraderie is shattered with the arrival of Yeter, a prostitute that comes to live with the old man. Yeter, is also connected with a daughter, Ayten, who she helps support, but the young woman, living in Turkey doesn't have a clue as to what her mother really does in Germany in order to send her money. The last relationship is between Lotte, a young woman and her mother, Susanne. Each of these set of parents and children are at odds within themselves.

The action, that starts in Germany, ends up in Turkey, as all the six main characters come back to renew their ties with their past, or find their roots, or just out of despair because of a loss. This is a story about people trying to reach out to connect to others they love, or because they want to right the wrongs committed earlier. And yes, it is a tale of redemption as the film comes to a close.

Mr. Akin has woven a complicated tapestry in which delicate colors are added as the situations develop. The director has done a magnificent job in guiding the actors in this surprising movie. Nurgul Yesilcay appears as Ayten, the young woman with revolutionary ideas. Patrycia Ziolkowska is Lotte, who befriends Ayten and proves she is more than a friend. The excellent Baki Davrak makes a wonderful contribution with his take on Nejat. Hanna Schygulla, the star in a class by herself, is at her best with her Susanne. Nursel Kose and Tuncel Kurtiz play Yeter and Ali, respectively.

Rainer Klausmann's brilliant cinematography enhances every aspect of the film. The soundtrack was provided by Shantel, who mixes surprising sounds that add a dimension to the film. Ultimately, Faith Akin is to be congratulated for his vision in this satisfying film.

This new film by Faith Akin, "Auf der anderen Seite", is thematically very close to his excellent last film "Gegen die Wand". Again the story plays to some parts in Germany and to some parts in Turkey. There are two big plot lines that Akin in the end ties up. The first compliment that I have to make is that although his films are multicultural cinema, the films only consider religion as being one part to their whole (which is something special if you look at global discussions about ethnic problems). Many migrants fight a constant battle between their old and new home. In the end they don't really feel home anywhere. Main character Nejat Aksu, played by Baki Davrak, is a prime example for this ambivalence. He's not fully able and willing to leave the Turkish elements in him behind and for that is able to see the conflict between identities even clearer. Ayten Öztürk's character on the other hand lets us experience what freedom of opinion really means. Nurgül Yesilçay delivers a very fine performance in this role.

On the message board about this movie is a thread headed by the question, "Am I the only one who thinks this movie sucks?" I almost answered it before I finished watching the movie, but I decided to wait it out and see if it improved, and it did.

My problem wasn't with the slow, lyrical pace of the movie (I actually loved that), the numerous gut-wrenching near-misses, the section titles that gave away key plot points before they happened, or all the loose ends and questions left unanswered when the credits rolled. I like movies that don't follow the Hollywood blockbuster formula, and the farther they depart from the formula the better I usually like them. But I pretty much have to care about somebody in a movie to care about the movie, and I just didn't care about a single one of these characters until very near the end.

With very few exceptions, my enjoyment of any movie depends on how deeply I get involved with the characters in it, and I just wasn't getting involved with these. The old man and both young women were so shallow, selfish, and stupid that all I wanted was never to have to see any of them again, and that didn't change at all in the course of the movie. To me, they were just three obnoxious, uninteresting losers who never learned from their mistakes. (A selfish, mean-spirited old man crying does not fill me with sympathy. It reminds me too much of somebody I know.)

The young man and the prostitute were a little better than the other three, only because they weren't selfish and obnoxious; but they were nearly as shallow, not much realer to me as human beings than the others were. I didn't dislike them, but I didn't care much about them either.

So, around 20 minutes from the end, when the old man pulled his put-the-book-down-slowly-and-weep-into-the-camera shtick, I was ready to write on that message board, "You're right—this movie sucks!" But immediately after that, Hanna Schygulla (I'd forgotten she even existed) rose slowly and gracefully out of the muck and brought a flesh-and-blood human being to life in this movie at last.

Her radiant but deeply grounded performance almost made the whole movie worthwhile, made even some of the other characters seem not so bad after all. Once her character fully appeared, even her welcoming the still-obnoxious Ayten into her life didn't ruin it for me, nor did her prompting Nejat to run off pathetically after his self-pitying jerk of a father. Hanna Schygulla saved this movie from tedium and transformed it into something worth watching—all by herself.

For her performance, and for the beautifully poetic pace of this movie, I give it several more stars than I would have if I'd stopped watching it 20 minutes before the end.

After watching the movie ,which I definitely enjoyed,I hope there will soon be some kind of a guide to the movie... Where the movie pretends to be open for interpretation I rather feel that quiet interesting but negligible aspects of the story were cut out in the editing room so it doesn't get much longer than 2 hours...my behind is definitely grateful... Yet for the sake of my curiosity I would have liked to know if Nejat's father ever comes back from his fishing trip(i guess not because of the title of the last chapter but who knows). At least they could have shown an empty boat passing by... And if Nejat and Ayten ever meet or will Ayten be gone before he comes back to Istanbul? What would Ayten's reaction be to meeting the son of her mom's murderer ?? Will Ayten ever find out about what happened to her mom at all? And what will happen to Charlotte's mom? ...I mean I don't expect to know what happens to all the characters until their burial but I definitely feel at times the story lacks a little drift in a certain direction. At the end of the movie I really thought the book Nejat gives to his father will be some kind of guide to reflect the movie especially the end but as a matter of fact the book has nothing to do with the movie. . To me the recurrent theme is not that convincing, you know this "person a meets person b who is friends with person c which then meets person a without knowing person a and b know each other and so forth... i mean come on...that was not thaaat deeep...it's all dialectic plus the old "everyone knows someone who knows someone who knows Kevin Bacon-story"... The basic idea of accidental occurrences and their consequences is definitely not thaaat original but the script is still well-made and imho the movie has a soul which leads us to the next aspect. The strengths of the movie are the characters themselves,they feel authentic,you can INSTANTLY connect to them,the acting is very well with some acceptions where the dialogues seem a little like they had to be shot in a hurry. The actors do a brilliant job,just like we are used to it in Faith's movies. Thumbs up for the casting executive! in the end, Faith is THE man, don't ask me why,probably because even his "not-so-fabulous" movies are enjoyable. I really like the guy,and I am sure his best movie is yet to come...

"Auf der anderen Seite" was writer and director Faith Akin's next project after the very successful "Gegen die Wand" and this one here is once again about German-Turkish relationships, probably to an even bigger extent (in terms of the Turkish impact) than his previous work. Lead actor Baki Davrak is not even known here in Germany anymore really, but his film here still managed impressive success with awards bodies all over the world. The hype around Akin has decreased a bit in the last couple years, but here back in 2007, it was pretty much at its peak.

The story is about a Turkish man living in Germany and about everything that happens to the people he encounters and most of it is not particularly pleasant. "Auf der anderen Seite"" or "On the other side" is a title that refers to Turkey/Germany, but also to the afterlife in terms of this film. One example would be the man accidentally killing his woman when he hits her to the head with something heavy, a story arc Akin included in a similar manner in "Gegen die Wand", something that changes everything for victim and offender.

As a whole, I was missing moments of true greatness in this film here, moments that had my eyes glued to the screen, but the collection of stories and characters was nonetheless fairly interesting in my opinion. I enjoyed the watch, even if I am a bit baffled by all the awards attention this film and Hanna Schygulla got for her performance. The rest of the cast were at least as good. If you have an interest in foreign cultures and culture clash or just German films in general and are not scared by the bleakness of the film, these almost two hours here are certainly worth checking out. Good writing and good acting, overall a success.

A well performed and aesthetically beautiful film. My concern was with the somewhat implausible plot threads, not being much of a fan of the "if only they'd been there a moment sooner, everything would've become elucidated..." type film. The plot moves too quickly at times, with far too many unlikely coincidences and with unnecessary prolepses at the start of the film, creating a certain amount of expectation that is for the most part pretty much unfulfilled. My overall feeling was that if this film had been made in Hollywood, no one would have been raving about it, and perhaps understandably so, as the excellent acting and the beautiful scenery certainly distinguish it as a cut above Hollywood. To be honest though, I'm not sure where all the rave reviews are coming from. It was enjoyable (if slow at times) and the cinematography was good, but overall I found it quite forgettable.