Side programme > Retrospective of a Contemporary German Film
The edge of heaven
AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE/THE EDGE OF HEAVEN
Germany, Turkey, Italy 2007,. ¸122 min
Director
Fatih Akin
Cast
Nurgül Yesilçay, Baki Davrak, Hanna Schygulla
Awards
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2007.
Best screenplay
EUROPIAN FILM AWARD 2007. - Best Screenwriter
GERMAN FILM AWARDS 2008. - Best direction, editing, screenplay, Outstanding Feature Film
Nejat seems disapproving about his widower father Ali's choice of prostitute Yeter for a live-in girlfriend. But he grows fond of her when he discovers she sends money home to Turkey for her daughter's university studies. Yeter's sudden death distances father and son. Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter's daughter Ayten. Political activist Ayten has fled the Turkish police and is already in Germany. She is befriended by a young woman, Lotte, who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home, a gesture not particularly pleasing to her conservative mother Susanne. When Ayten is arrested and her asylum plea is denied, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey. Lotte travels to Turkey,where she gets caught up in the seemingly hopeless situation of freeing Ayten.
Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage. He began studying Visual Communications atHamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994. His first full length feature film, "Short Sharp Shock" (1998) won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Director) in 1998. His other films include: "In July" (2000), "Wir Haben Vergessen Zurueckzukehren" (2001), "Solino" (2002), the Berlinale Golden Bear-winner and winner of the German and European Film Awards "Head-On" (2003), and "Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul" (2005).