'The Edge of Heaven'
Rating: 
Reaching our shores a year after its triumphant premiere at Cannes, Fatih Akin's latest drama is an intricately spun and soul-stirring meditation on fate, family and cultural bridge-building. Deploying a symmetrical triptych format whose events overlap and twist back on themselves like a pretzel, Akin traces the paths of a sextet of individuals variously conjoined by passion, DNA and unforeseeable mutual interests: a crusty Turkish-emigre widower living in Bremen, Germany (Tuncel Kurtiz), and the Turkish prostitute he takes in as his hausfrau-for-hire (Nursel K"se); the prostitute's longestranged political rebel daughter (Nurgül Yesilcay) and the German student who becomes her lover-abettor (Patrycia Ziolkowska); the student's bourgeois mother (Hanna Schygulla); and the Turkish widower's son (the handsomely brooding Baki Davrak), who has made the ultimate second-generation leap by becoming a professor of German studies in Hamburg.
As in his bruising "Head-On," Akin revels in such cross-cultural ironies, but this is a palpably more elegant and compassionate work: The filmmaker cares deeply for all of his characters and forgives them their trespasses. Maybe he feels a tad something more for his two remorseful matriarchs; while all of the actors give sharp, carefully considered performances, we can't shake the sorrowful visages of Schygulla and particularly K"se, who haunts the proceedings long after her all-too-brief moment in the sun has passed.
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (unrated) Fatih Hanna Schygulla and Baki Davrak head a superb multinational ensemble in this gorgeously rendered drama of six individuals whose relationships crisscross between Germany and Turkey. Eloquently written and directed by Fatih Akin ("Head-On"). 1:56 (brief violence, sexuality). In German and Turkish with English subtitles. At Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, and Film Forum, Manhattan.
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
Photos
Search Classifieds
| JOBS | SHOP | CARS | HOMES | |||||||||
Listings, directories and deals
|
||||||||||||
Popular stories
- AP Top U.S. News At 6:04 a.m. EDT
- Ultimate Playboy Hugh Hefner turns 80
- "24" cast and character guide
- Obama, McCain to mark 9/11 at Ground Zero together
- Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson cause near-riot at Fashion Week
MetroMix
Recent Multimedia
Celebrities at Fashion Week
John McCain: Early years
NFL Kickoff Show in NYC
Tennis hotties
Hangin' in the Hamptons
Guess the celeb from the high school photo
Sarah Palin: The early years
Sarah Palin, north star
Tiger Woods, Elin and baby Sam
Venus and Serena Williams through the years and at the U.S. Open
Michael Phelps hangs out, swims in New York
U.S. Open celebrities and tennis stars around New York
Sarah Palin and her family
Annual Tomatina food fight in Spain
Michael Jackson through the years
Olympian Shawn Johnson, Jennifer Hudson, other celebrities at Democratic convention
Barack Obama through the years
At the DNC: Day 3
American Idol judges Kara DioGuardi, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson in New York
Olympic goddesses





