The Edge of Heaven / Auf der anderen Seite
Year of release: 2007
Directed by: Fatih Akin
Germany, Turkey, Italy
Courtesy of Corazón International
The film traces the journeys of sons and daughters, mothers and fathers between Turkey and Germany, searching for each other. In the process, families fall apart through conflicts and sudden deaths and, in the end, new familial bonds are forged.
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…
(Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH)
See also film reviews in The Guardian, 22 February 2008 and in Film Comment, May/June 2008
Link to official website Auf der anderen Seite
Filed under: Fathers | Journey | Mothers | Queer diaspora | Turkish German