The Edge of Heaven

"The Edge of Heaven"

Fatih Akin, 2008

There is an old man, who grew up in Turkey but now resides in Germany, who falls in love with a hooker, who also, chance would have it, comes from Turkey. They fall in love and live together until, one day, when the old man is in a drunken stupor, he suddenly slaps her, and in doing so kills her instantly. This event sets the rest of the film's plot in motion, but it is also the first of many astoundingly contrived and unintentionally hilarious moments throughout "The Edge of Heaven," a new German film that follows in the tradition of ensemble pieces, where many characters' lives, in Turkey and in Germany, intersect with one another.

The director Fatih Akin tries to depict how people's identities, when emigrating from their old, inflexible country - Turkey - to more lenient ones - Germany - which aren't always so friendly to newcomers, get mixed up. He does so with little success. Akin gives his film an impersonal touch, keeping his camera at a distance when the narrative really demands our emotional involvement. He also has an unfortunate habit of implying and telling, rather than showing, that traumatic events have occurred - a son falling out with his father, for example - and chooses to focus on the aftermath, when it's not entirely clear what it's the aftermath of in the first place.

Alas, Akin's film becomes even more absurd - the now-dead hooker has a large and caring family, apparently, whose members convince the old man's son, a professor, to go to Turkey and try to find the hooker's daughter there. He never runs into her, though, because she's a revolutionary who has fled to Germany, and it is there that she meets a pretty blond woman, who is a university student; and they suddenly become lovers, leading to many more ridiculous plot developments. It probably isn't a good sign when the characters, on multiple occassions, swipe their books off tables in frustration, and I care more about the damaged property than the characters' well-being. Who knew that angst could become so repetitive and trivial?

This is a shame, because there's no reason why these characters, when set apart from the ridiculous plot, shouldn't be fascinating figures. There are certainly promising moments throughout the film, particularly in an overhead shot of a mother, whose daughter has died in an incident, pacing her hotel room and slowly getting drunk. But it feels like Akin is afraid to delve closer, to show what's really troubling these very unfortunate people. All we witness is consistently clumsy technique that leaves us feeling just as unfulfilled as these characters.

Rating: 4

First Viewed: 7/23/08, in 35 mm projection
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