Guest Author - Holly Fox

A German didn’t win the Palm d’Or at last week’s Cannes Film Festival but one did win the award for best screenplay. Fatih Akin’s “Auf der anderen Seite” (titled The Edge of Heaven in English) is a contemporary ensemble film with young and old Turks, Germans, and Turkish-Germans struggling with intercultural, intergenerational, and political conflicts. It premiered at Cannes and will come to German theaters on October 2nd. Unfortunately, it may not reach American theaters until 2008.

Akin was born in Hamburg’s multi-cultural Altona neighborhood to Turkish parents in 1973. Although still young, several of his films have been widely praised by critics and have enjoyed worldwide success. His films often represent the challenges the Turkish-Germans face in Germany and can be seen as an attempt to show German moviegoers another side of their Turkish neighbors.

While you wait for “The Edge of Heaven” to make it to the US, why not check out some of his other films? If you can’t find them at your local foreign video rental store, all three of these films are available through Netflix.

Im Juli (In July) 2000: Daniel buys a ring with a Mayan sun symbol and the promise that he will recognize the love of his life when he sees the sun again. Fate (or chance) brings him both Juli and Melek, a Turkish woman just stopping through Hamburg. Daniel and Juli end up together in a beat up old car, traveling across Eastern Europe towards Istanbul, where he hopes to see Melek again.

Gegen die Wand (Head-On) 2004: The first in a planned “life, death, and devil” trilogy, Head-On won the award for Best Film at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival. Sibel, a Turkish-German proposes a sham marriage to a Cahit, a Turkish widower, as a way out from her family’s conservative expectations of her. At first they live as roommates and Sibel continues with her independent sex life. Then love, jealousy, and violent enter the picture.

Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul 2005: Akin and German musician Alexander Hacke lead viewers through the musical world of Istanbul in this documentary film.