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The Edge of Heaven

It’s amazing how Fatih Akin manages to tell stories of deep humanism neatly tucked behind a layer of hardcore, fearless and modern filmmaking. His previous film Head-On (2004) presented instances of tough love, open sexuality and desire while all the time telling the story of two lost souls finding love in each other. The Edge of Heaven continues Akin’s flair of telling touching stories but this time the growth is prominent. Akin has matured into a greater storyteller, much like the same bottle of wine opened three years later presents an even richer taste.

In The Edge of Heaven, Akin explores the themes of human connection- how closely we all are connected and really how unaware we are about that very fact. Throughout the film, we see three main characters and three supporting looking for the other and not knowing they are connected through each other through the other. A rather confusing statement to express in words but once the film is watched, it would surely make more sense. Another important thing about this film (or any other Fatih Akin story) is the vehicle. Akin explores the theme of the film (human connectivity) through the vehicle of parent-child relationship or more accurately father-son and mother-daughter relationship.

The third most important thing that Akin employs in this film is the narrative structure. Akin presents this gripping story in a fractured timeline spanning over three chapters: Yeter’s Death, Lotte’s Death and The Edge of Heaven. The first chapter takes place almost entirely in Germany, the second shares 50% with Turkey and the final chapter takes place almost entirely in Istanbul. Akin is known for his clever segmentation of his films, previously in Head-On (2004) he had transitional video scenes of a Turkish Classical Band playing in front of the Blue Mosque with the music suggesting the mood and the feel of the upcoming segment of the film. And this is where Akin’s brilliance truly lies: the presentation. He never really is inclined towards using these transitional segments or the chapterization as a mere narrative gimmick but rather one can feel that he is merely presenting his story in an original and exciting way.

In the first chapter Yeter’s Death, we meet three of the principal characters: Ali Aksu- an old Turkish immigrant, his son Nejat- a German language professor and Yeter- a middle-aged prostitute who strikes up a friendship with Ali. This chapter mostly takes place in Germany where Ali and Yeter meet and later Ali invites Yeter to come live with him for a monthly fee. Yeter, fearing the local Turkish muslims who have been tormenting her to leave prostitution agrees and moves in with him. She fits in well with the aging Ali and his son Nejat in whom she confides about her daughter Ayten, who she hasn’t heard from in a while. Ali and Yeter have a falling out which results in Yeter’s death by a furious slap from Ali (an element which previously occurred in Akin’s Head-On). Ali is imprisoned and Nejat takes Yeter’s body back to Istanbul and begins to look for her daughter Ayten and in the meantime ends up purchasing a German language bookstore from a homesick German.

The second chapter is entitled “Lotte’s Death” and here we meet the film’s other three principal characters. We first meet Ayten, a young rebel with the local militant group protesting violently in a peaceful demonstration and fleeing from the police. She hides on the rooftop of a building where she hides a gun and escapes soon after. She makes her way to Germany with the help of her underground group of rebels and begins the search for her mother. She is soon thrown out by the people she trusted and ends up at a university (the very same one where Nejat teaches German language) after spending a night in an ATM booth. Here, she meets Charlotte, known to loved one’s simply as Lotte who buys her food and takes her back to her home to live with her much to the dismay of her mother Susanne. Lotte and Ayten fall passionately in love and Lotte promises Ayten to help her find her mother. In the meantime, Ayten is arrested for having a fake passport and is denied asylum as her country poses no threat to her life. She is immediately deported to Istanbul and arrested. Lotte follows her to Istanbul in the hope of bailing her out but runs into corrupt Turkish bureaucracy. She meets Nejat at his bookstore and rents a room in his house not knowing Nejat, now separated from his father is also searching for Ayten. She visits Ayten at the prison where she is asked to find the gun that Ayten had previously hidden on the terrace and hold it till someone contacts her. Lotte finds the gun but is pick-pocketed by street children who accidentally shoot her with the same gun.

The final chapter is “The Edge of Heaven” and here we deal with Nejat, Susanne and Ayten. Susanne visits Istanbul and meets Nejat and requests to live in the same room as her daughter. She eventually decides to get Ayten out as a fulfillment of her daughter’s final wish. She strikes a friendship with Nejat and makes him realize that he should patch up his relationship with hs father, who is now released from jail and has gone back to his old village to fish. She offers to watch his bookstore while he is away and it just so happens that Ayten is released during the same time that Nejat is away. In the final scene of the film (a repeat of the opening scene), we see Nejat driving to his father’s old village. He arrives at a beach and is told that his father has gone out to fish. He sits down and watches the ocean as credits roll.

And this is how with such simplicity, Fatih Akin tells us a beautiful story of human relationships. Apart from moving performances from all the six main actors, Akin had a beautiful story to begin with which explores a rather under-rated theme and features a vehicle which is most often overlooked. He added an interesting and original narrative structure to it and the result is perhaps one of his best works to date and definitely one of the most beautiful films ever made.