STUDIO: Strand Releasing
RELEASE DATE: June 13, 2008
STARRING: Nurgul Yesilcay, Baki Davrak, Tuncel Kurtiz, Hanna Schygulla, Patrycia Ziolkowska, and Nursel Kose
WRITTEN BY: Fatih Akin
DIRECTED BY: Fatih Akin
GENRE: Foreign/Drama
RATING: NR

A lot was made about how impressive 2007 was for foreign language films (and how much the Academy missed the mark when it came time to reward them). 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, Persepolis, The Host, The Counterfeiters, The Band's Visit, and The Orphanage were only a few of the highly acclaimed foreign flicks from 2007. In the context of all these great films, a movie called The Edge of Heaven would sometimes be mentioned and, I'll admit, I was a little hesitant about a German/Turkish film from the director of the merely so-so Head On, Fatih Akin. The film won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival last year and was nominated for best director and film at the European Film Awards, where it also won Best Screenplay. Other nominees for Best Film last year at the European Film Awards included 4 Months, La Vie En Rose, Persepolis, The Last King of Scotland, and The Queen. Good company. And, surprisingly, The Edge of Heaven should have won. It's the best film I've seen on a big screen this year, a stunning accomplishment that feels like a sprawling novel brought to life in cinema. In two hours, Fatih Akin says more about family, loyalty, and fate than most novelists do in their entire careers. It's a stunning accomplishment and a film that you really need to do everything you can to track down. It's playing in New York and LA and opening at the Music Box in Chicago this weekend.

The Edge of Heaven is divided into three chapters - "Yeter's Death", "Lotte's Death", and "The Edge of Heaven". The first chapter introduces us to Ali (Tuncel Kurtiz), a lonely Turkish immigrant living in Bremen, Germany. He happens to come across a prostitute of Turkish descent named Yeter (Nursel Kose), who he grows attached to. He offers to take her out of prostitution and pay for her to be his lifetime partner. Ali has a son named Nejat (Baki Davrak), who the old man becomes convinced has slept with his younger partner. Tension leads to tragedy and father and son split ties. Nejat longs to make up for the tragedy and he moves to Istanbul to search for Yeter's daughter, Ayten (Nurgul Yesilcay), which leads to the second act, "Lotte's Death". While Nejat buys a German book store in Turkey, Ayten goes the other way to Bremen, to look for her mother and seek political asylum. She meets Lotte (Patrycia Ziokowska), a student with who she falls in love. Ayten is caught and sent back to Turkey, where Lotte follows, much to her mother's (Hanna Schygulla) disdain. Another tragedy follows and the cycle of parents, children, and pain continues between Turkey and Germany.

The award-winning screenplay for The Edge of Heaven is an absolute stunner. In print, the plot recap above may sound overdone or melodramatic, but it absolutely never is either. Akin has crafted a completely believable tapestry of emotions and ideas that is almost overwhelming in its complexity. What would you do if your father was a killer? What if your lover was a criminal? What if your daughter ran away? And, brilliantly, Akin provides no easy answers, not even ending the film with a tidy conclusion (the final image left every single critic in the screening room in their seat for the entire credits...it's that good). Like a lot of great writers, Akin is interested in the way we can forever change each other with a chance encounter. Ali walks down the right alley and meets Yeter. Ayten asks Lotte for money outside of a school center. Screenwriters have been forever fascinated by these twists of fate but there haven't been that many who produced a work more emotionally well-rounded than The Edge of Heaven. Writers who work with fate-driven screenplays often descend into unbelievable coincidences, but The Edge of Heaven always feels truly, tragically real. There are moments that will haunt me at least through the year and probably longer.

The screenplay has won awards but it's only one successful ingredient in this four-star film. The performances are uniformly superb, especially Hanna Schygulla as Lotte's mom. She has a sequence in a hotel room that's riveting in its understanding of the process of grief. But everyone deserves acclaim, another sign that Akin has developed as not just a writer, but as a director as well, pulling great performances from the entire ensemble. It also helps to have stunning cinematography from Rainer Klausmann.

It's a cold fact that The Edge of Heaven won't be seen by too many American audiences. It played at festivals, has opened around most of the world already, and is now very quietly hitting arthouse theaters in major cities. You'll probably have to catch up with it on DVD. But if you're anywhere near a city that's playing it in a theater, I couldn't be more direct - go see it. You will not regret it and not soon forget the best film so far this year.