The Edge of Heaven

A 2007 German film by Fatih Akin tells a story of the intertwined stories of three families. See if you can keep this straight. A Turkish father (Ali) and his son (Nejat), a German daughter (Lotte) and her mother (Suzanne), and a Turkish mother (Yeter) and daughter (Ayten). The intertwining goes something like this. In Germany, Ali frequents Yeter's brothel, and Nejat does not approve. When Yeter dies, Nejat goes in search of her daughter Ayten in Turkey. Ayten happens to have fled Turkey and is in Germany looking for her (now dead) mother and living with Lotte. Susanne does not approve of Lotte's choice of friends, but eventually ends up in Turkey to help out the now repatriated Ayten, meets up with Nejat and encourages him to make amends with Ali. Ok, so a couple of sentences just makes it confusing. The film itself unfolds a story with a series of coincident connections, avoiding so many connections that everything wraps up into a happy fairy tale. Even so, with each meeting or near miss I found myself hoping for 'just one more coincidence'. Instead each of the six protagonists search for meaning in their family relationships but only seem to be able to make decisions which widen the relational gulf between themselves and those they love. The film cuts nicely between Germany and Turkey, and uses occasional flashbacks (or flash forwards) which are revealing in hindsight without leading to scattered timeline. And the coloring and scenery reminded me a lot of In July, also by Akin. In fact, these two films are remarkably similar, with In July filling the romantic comedy and The Edge of Heaven filling the dramatic tragedy categories. Both films are very good.
4-stars