When I started watching the first story, I was annoyed. Grandpa Ali makes an extremely unpleasant impression... a quick pensioner with all his behavior shouts “we are cheerful and cheerful!”, demonstrating and surprising everyone with his sexual well-being. But by the end of this story, the negative emotions had subsided, and interest had begun to gain traction in the second story. The events of the third part only increase interest. Good acting. Convincing and heartfelt. Actors are organic in their character.
Three stories come together, one way or another, interweaving the fate of the heroes. A special emotion was caused by the play of the actress in the role of Susanna ... calm, not scandalous ... loving mother, who wants to understand and not alienate her daughter-student ... she bribes, causes incredible sympathy, creating around herself an aura of peace, love, wisdom ... She remains so and in the final part... a monstrous tragedy and manifestation of mercy... participation in the life of her daughter’s friend – a person of dubious, rebellious disposition and involved in what happened... frankly, this attitude is not easy to believe... It is impossible to stamp out the pain and moans in the soul, to patch a lacerated wound in the heart ... but in memory of her daughter, she, thanks to her wisdom, did not succumb to the destructive power of hatred and the desire to take revenge and decided to finish what she wanted, but did not have time to do her daughter.
I like the growing power of the film. The final story turned out to be the most exciting ... impresses and excites emotions ...
From the very beginning, I would like to say that the distributors translated the name into Russian incorrectly. Because there is not a word about paradise, religious or metaphorical. In Russian it will be correct "On the other side" ... walls, fences, borders ... this is "we are here and they are there." And the very idea of the film, exaggeratedly expressed precisely in the fact that there is no "there" and "there" because "the Earth is round." I don’t remember why or why Merkel once said that “multiculturalism in Germany has failed,” whether it was taken out of context or something else. This, thank God, is not so, and in addition to ordinary citizens, we see politicians, scientists, writers, or directors of non-German origin (by the way, Akin, a German of Turkish origin, probably now one of the best modern German directors) who make films about this. But this film isn’t even about integration, which is a lot of talk right now. It is, if you will, about post-integration, about people living in two cultural, social, moral worlds at the same time. Or, to put it more simply, it is about what unites and divides people who are the same from all sides in that they are, above all, people. Their vices and benefactors are primarily human. Akin shot a very deep parable from the inside, which bypasses all the usual (national) cliches, as one of the representatives of the post-integration, multicultural generation.
Let me repeat once again that the theme of integration there is only the foundation, the suitcase with which a person arrived in this world, where the plot begins.
I decided to watch the film, because my favorite actress, a star of Turkish cinema, plays here, her work is not the only one – Yasemin “Love and Punishment” and Gülseren “Smithereens” (the series is in the process of filming) – Nurgul Yeshilchay
The film is not made for everyone, not everyone will understand the essence of this picture. I understood him as where I was born - there and fit, happiness is near, you just need to reach out to him your hand.
The film tells about the six fates of people who are intertwined by an invisible thread, for the sake of forgiveness and reconciliation!
The story begins with an elderly Turkish gentleman Ali Aksu (Tunsel Kurtiz), who tries to calm down loneliness and longing in Hamburg brothels, there he meets the beautiful Jesse - the Turkish Yeter (Nursel Kese), which he later "rents" and takes with him as a "paid wife", after the old man Ali finds out why Yeter chose this path, he begins to respect her. Yether came from Istanbul to Hamburg and earns this way for the sake of her daughter’s university studies and sends most of her earnings to her, but Ayten has long left her studies in Turkey and, having fled from her relatives, is trampling on the streets of Germany as a revolutionary in an opposition group that opposes Turkey’s accession to the European Union. The girl leads an immoral lifestyle, in Turkey people would condemn her for such behavior and sloppiness, but this is not the point. One day, Aiten meets Lotta, who will help her financially so that she does not disappear on the streets in an unfamiliar country, they will become friends.
The film is wonderful, but sometimes sad to tears. I’ve never seen an art house before, and it’s all good, but the film is only for once.
8 out of 10
I am glad that the painting “On the edge of paradise” is not a single negative review. May God allow this tradition to continue successfully, and I, in turn, will join the positive reviews and, with your permission, will close a few lines to this film. It's really worth it.
The interweaving of fates is a difficult and multilevel thing. And in order for all the elements of the puzzle to come together and fall into place, it requires the hand of a master. Such in this case is the hand of the Turk Fatih Akin, who emigrated to Germany, did not get lost and found himself in the cinematic field. From the first minute, the film is exciting. No, he doesn't take it to the quarry, but there's a certain tone. The debut of the film, a kind of springboard for the subsequent events shown, which will properly spin, involving even pessimistic and skeptical viewers. And the thing is, it's painfully attractive types. Take the same old man, Ali Aksu (Tunsel Courtiz). It's not a wrinkled grandfather living out his last days. He is also a man of oh-oh, as evidenced by his love fervor and temperament and in his summer interest in women. So he walked to the quarter where the priestesses of love stand. So I chose a lady for my age. It is not the first freshness and it is not young. He's not 25, either. Yetar Osturk (Nürsel Köse) is very beautiful and has her own charm, among other things. As for old Ali, he, in addition to physical health, has humor and optimism and his learned son, can give a hundred points ahead. But there's a catch. What? You'll see for yourself if you look.
The tragedy happened quickly and suddenly, so before you know it, Fatih Akin takes us to Germany. But it was done not as if, not hastily, but very smoothly and organically, so there are no questions left. And now we see Lotta and her mother. Two Germans. But they don't look alike. Perhaps in her youth, Suzanne Staub was the same as her daughter now appears before us. But time has left its mark and the problem of generations, the conflict of fathers and children is already coming to the fore. Lotta tries to help the daughter of the same Yetar, a rebel by definition. Of course, the love affair between the girls could be omitted. It smears the overall impression a bit. But to reveal the image of Lotta (Patricia Tsiolkowska) probably it was necessary. Generally, Patricia Tsiolkowska is a discovery for me. It is this girl in the whole series of events and actions that most fully revealed the image. Bravo, Patricia! Meanwhile, events will become very serious, where sentiments will have no place. It will be necessary to act quickly and decisively, because Aitan will do such a thing. I'm going back to the director. How skillfully and subtly he linked all these destinies. And even whitewashed with gray hair Hannah Shigulu did not leave without attention. While the action took place in Germany, its role is not so expressive and accentuated. But as soon as she found out about it, when she came to Turkey, we see another woman. Transformation and reincarnation from Hannah Shigula, and simply master class or not aging soul veterans. That's it.
I also liked the music in this picture. Thanks to Chantelle, who synchronized the feelings of the heroes with his notes, without missing anything and without splashing, brought to us the full bowl to the brim, forgive me for the tape. And Rainer Klausmann is to be commended for his camera work. Above all praise. As a short summary, I will say this: if you liked the film “Clash” by Paul Haggis, then the picture of Fatih Akin, similar in design, is no less strong and significant, which means that you must watch! And among the favorite films, gets as recently scored by Gareth Bale, from the penalty bar and into the net!
10 out of 10
It seems that the desperate acts of our youth belong only to us and should not concern anyone. I can love whom I want, I can go to the country I want, I can fight for ideas that are close to me.
It seems that our mature years are full of consequences for our youth, and those who manage to reconcile and forgive deserve respect.
In Fatih Akin’s film, at first glance, everyone’s fate has its own boundaries, on the second they are too closely intertwined, on the third – something only clears up.
Using the not new in the cinema technique of crossing fates, the director, nevertheless, created a complex, multi-layered and very interesting film in which he exposes many questions about the peculiarities of the East and the West and does not hesitate to show that he himself does not always have answers. Fateful encounters are reflected in the relationship between father and son, mother and daughter and touch on eternal themes: duty and obligations, sacrifice and redemption, and above all issues of family and national identity. Fatih Akin himself was destined to accommodate both cultures, both German and Turkish, so it is no accident for him to mix his heroes from both nations in order to search for universal values.
The atmosphere of the film is fascinating and the acting is impeccable.
Expressively hit, but never able to break through the wall of cultural differences, ethnic Turk of German origin Fatih Akin continued to explore the topics closest to him. "At the Edge of Paradise" (or, more accurately, "On the Other Side") is a collage of six human destinies, which was not lucky enough to form exactly one year after "Babylon" Iñárritu. It is easy not to notice obvious differences behind the external similarities. At a minimum, if Iñárritu turned good actors into victims of a butterfly wing-flapping tsunami and simply functions on the board of globalism, then Akin loves his heroes, and films are mostly about people, not about processes. As a maximum, the composition of “Babylon” itself is a twisted intricate knot, but, nevertheless, the simplest chain of events, and “On the Edge of Paradise” looks more like a rhizome. Divided into three chapters, the film with the titles of the first two announces the death of the heroes, and in the last breaks this circle of predetermined death and its embodiment. In a similar way, the beginning and end, symbolically falling on the feast of sacrifice of Kurban Bayram, are closed, and inside all these rings there is a tangle of interactions. At the same time, the whole system seeks to break out of its own limit and break through to some “other side”.
The other side is, in the most obvious sense, another country, and all of Akin’s work globally is the Odyssey. The director, who has absorbed the traditions of the two peoples, is equally clear both Western discos and eastern slums, but it is obvious that the romance of narrow Istanbul streets, the pacification of Trabzon beaches, the freedom of Kurdish national songs attract him much more. This passion forces the artist in almost every film to bring his characters home in search of a source of strength, a chance for rebirth. Quickly and painlessly, when too many mistakes are made in Germany, Gabriel is sent to his native Turkey. In the sunny Solino, a family of Italian immigrants is reunited. Long-awaited peace instead of dazzling light find in Istanbul Kahit and Sibel - the heroes of perhaps Akin's most powerful film "Head Against the Wall". On the Edge of Paradise, the director places the characters in a complex multicultural context, pitting them against each other against the background of political, social, ideological, generational differences. While one quotation from Goethe denounces revolutions that are more disruptive than they are creating, another is at the same time participating in extremist riots, shielding the name of Kurdish separatist Ocalan and a portrait of Che Guevara. Someone sells the body, someone buys it; someone is modern, someone is orthodox; someone sees salvation in the conformist melting pot of the European Union, someone is ready to give his life for the preservation of ethnic features. Each of the characters must go a certain way, not without reason in “On the edge of paradise” there is also a road motif closely related to returning home, also characteristic of Akin’s films.
This path lies in the realization of the richness of the modern world, to the fact that everyone has more similarities than differences. The Turkish and German lines are mirrored. The rally in the streets of Bremen reflects the May Day demonstration in Istanbul, with Kafkaesque bureaucracy permeating both countries. A German opens a bookstore in Turkey, while a Turk becomes a professor of German studies in Hamburg. The sin of the father tries to redeem the son, and the mother tries to fulfill the passionate desire of the daughter. After all, both Abraham and Ibrahim were equally willing to sacrifice sons, and if one coffin goes to the former Ottoman Empire, the other would be sent from there to Germany. So, trying to unravel the web of fates, characters and points of view, finding similarities in the seemingly opposite, suddenly you realize that “On the Edge of Paradise” is a movie, in general, about balance. Therefore, it is absolutely natural in this mosaic of dissimilar lives to look like death, the theme of which is generally the conceptual basis of the picture. Fatih Akin said his goal was to make three films: love, death, and evil. Head Against the Wall was the first part of this trilogy about love. Therefore, “On the Other Side” is a film about death, symbolizing, according to Akin, a new beginning. And this is not even about the fact that there will be some other life (and it, of course, will be), but about the need for sacrifice, that only after losing, after experiencing a strong shock, you can understand something and move on.
Contact with death changes the characters, makes them reconsider their usual views and, like Clovis, worship what they burned. It turns out that behind the usual directorial dichotomy of East and West lies the idea of the importance of overcoming stereotypes: cultural, moral, social, and ultimately just human. Akin obviously admires how the sexy maximalist Ayten changes her political beliefs. By the way, her hatred of the United States clearly recognizes the director himself, during the filming wore a T-shirt, where the swastika replaced one of the letters in the surname “Bush”. And here it is very important that it is an active anti-globalist who changes her views. Globalization is fraught with many challenges, but in the end, it is globalization that can finally eradicate the ideology of blood and soil. To cosmopolitan Fatih Akin, this must be more than obvious. However, just as lovingly the director watches other heroes: how the peace-loving intellectual Nejat (the image of a man of knowledge) forgives the murderer, how the inhabitant of a cozy bourgeois paradise Suzanne recognizes in an irreconcilable daughter young herself (and here the motive of the succession of generations is revealed), how the whole life pleasing not the spirit, but the flesh of Ali takes into his hands a book presented by his son... In the broadest sense, the other side is the other person. To go to it is to know it, to put yourself in its place. And you can say as much as you like that others are hell, but only after understanding this hell, you can approach paradise, where paradise is in harmony with yourself, accepting the world and your place in it.
Dedicated to a man with a light hand, as well as to all who, passing through their hell, allow you to find a piece of my paradise.
To make a trilogy about love, death and evil — such a goal when he was not even 30, set himself the director Fatih Akin, a German of Turkish origin. “In order to become an adult, I have to make three films,” Akin said.
This is a kind of continuation of the first film – “Head against the Wall”, which was released in 2004 and won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale. He told about the love of two lonely people: a 40-year-old man who descended after the death of his wife and a 20-year-old Turkish woman with suicidal tendencies. A film about love that only brings problems. It makes me want to beat my head against the wall. On the Edge of Paradise, which won the Cannes Prize for the screenplay, is a bit different. “It is about death, but in the sense that every death is a birth. Because both death and birth open doors to other dimensions, says Akin.
On the Edge of Paradise is divided into three stories. The reception, however, is far from new. It was made popular by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction, and perfected by Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Iñaritta in Love Bitch and Babylon.
Nevertheless, Akin brought his own grace to it. All three lines in the film are masterfully crafted.
The film is about the fate of six people who are somehow connected with each other. Widower Ali Aksu, fleeing loneliness, invites prostitute Ether to live with him. His son Nejat, a professor of German studies, disapproves of his stubborn father’s actions. But when she learns that she sends her only daughter to Istanbul to study, she begins to respect her. Nejat travels to Turkey in hopes of finding Ether’s daughter, Ayten. He does not know that the extremist Ayten, fleeing political persecution, moved to Germany. Alone and without money, she meets a German student Lotta, who is imbued with sympathy for a young radical and offers her to live with her. Lotta’s conservative mother, Suzanne, is repulsed by the noble gesture, who believes that Turkey’s problems will end after joining the European Union. Ayten ends up in jail. Impulsive Lotte, throwing everything, seeks to help the unfortunate girl.
As in his first work, despair is everywhere. The mother does not understand the daughter, the son does not understand the father. But the evolution of heroes is already there – in fact, it turns out that you can find a way out of any situation, even if there are boundaries between people – both between different cultures and members of the same family. Despite the optimistic beginning of these film stories, the continuation will be tragic, which the director categorically declares to the viewer. The fatal expectation of something ridiculous and terrible is reminiscent of the Decalogue of the famous Krzysztof Kieslewski. It’s hard to think of another movie that had so many thoughts. For two hours of screen time, Fatih Akin managed to ask a lot of questions, designating them as easy counterpoints, and let the viewer think about them on his own. Family, emigration and homecoming, art, anti-globalism and political opposition are the themes of the German director’s new film. Taking any of them as a basis, he builds the whole plot around it, while logic and integrity do not suffer. In the cunning interweaving of destinies and human stories, at first glance random coincidences and acquaintances, geographical locations lies the elegance of the architecture of the film. The storylines converge in Istanbul, the most important city for a Turkish-born filmmaker. The original film is called On the Other Side. And that thought runs through the film. Everything in the world has a different or a different side. On the edge are the characters of this drama. On the other side are national and religious divisions, politics, and ultimately themselves. Despite the dramatic nature of the story, the director of the film “On the Edge of Paradise” does not deprive the heroes of hopes for forgiveness and unification, despite national signs and political differences. But the more important thing about Akin’s film is that even death is never hopeless. There is pain and despair in it, but there is also human warmth, sensitivity, and some supreme justice of its own.
Excuse me, dear reader, much has been said here and all is true, but I want to write my review. In many ways, I will repeat myself and, probably, in many ways, I will not be right, but there is an irresistible desire to “talk” about this film.
It all starts with death. And although in the third part of the narrative there is no death as such, but it is mentioned. So you can take a long time to summarize how it all begins, how it ends... but not about this film.
I think it is possible to love a homeland, especially a “complex” one that does not love you, mainly at a great distance from this very homeland. Almost all the heroes miss Turkey and return to Turkey. Motherland, I think, as parents, no one chooses anyone (as husbands/wives), but just is born and falls in love with the first breath. Maybe this is the concept of a homeland? I don't know.
It seems to me that this film does not have the play, the assertiveness of the director. There's just a story told to us. In some ways instructive, in some senseless.
Many people say that this is not a masterpiece. Oh, you're right! But this film will not be forgotten.
Can I talk about the good? There is a lot of good, especially on the German side. Yes, there were tears. And you ask yourself, "If I were in Aitan's place, would someone help me?" again, I don't know. You don't want to believe anything. In this story, a lot depended on the good. It's real, it's free.
And death again. Like forever. Parents. Children. Homeland. That we do not choose, but love and accept.
Thank you.
Fatih Akin, a German filmmaker of Turkish descent, makes films that can be labeled “festival” and sent to the Weights and Measures Chamber. In his piggy bank already has a “Golden Bear”, and the prize for best script in Cannes, but the important thing is not that, but that his work is just pleasant to watch. There are comic notes, deep tragedy, and ethnic motives, famously replaced by cosmopolitanism. So, in this film they speak three languages: German, Turkish, English. Or what do you think of a Turkish Germanist teacher who moved from Hamburg to Istanbul and works in a German literature store?
Of course, in some places it is not difficult to trace the influence of the luminaries of the genre: the traditional arthouse division into chapters or the interweaving of the fates of the heroes at one point (mix scenes in time - and Guillermo Arriaga will turn out), but in general the picture is very peculiar. This is partly due to textured actors and pleasant folk music, but behind all this there is a solid author’s style, by which you can always recognize Akin’s films among many others.
Take at least the basis of the tape - a series of tragic accidents. Many have addressed and addressed this move, but not everyone has enough of some special flair that does not allow you to slide into far-fetchedness. Akin has it, and if the plot laid out on paper can still seem an incredible heap of coincidences, then excellent directing completely neutralizes this effect.
Or, for example, semantic content. At first glance, the number of topics raised is too large for one film: the relationship between parents and children, the difficult life of immigrants, non-traditional orientation, the political activity of young oppositionists. In fact, Akin manages not to ignore any of the stated topics, but so that they do not drown out each other and do not fall on the viewer indigestible tangle, but peacefully and harmoniously coexist. And some of them generally pop up in my head only the next day after watching: oh yes, he still talked about that! Thus, here we are dealing with a rare and very pleasant quality for the director: the ability to correctly and gracefully place accents, leaving something for the aftertaste.
All of this, coupled with an excellent cast (which is worth a great Hannah Shigula) is a good reason to find and watch On the Edge of Paradise, as well as pay attention to Akin’s other works, for they are worth it.
For some reason, I did not get along with this creation of Fatih Akin. Perhaps I chose the wrong time to watch, or the meaning and basic morality of the film is so subtle, so deeply hidden in the scenes and shots that I, a simple mortal man, simply do not understand and do not catch it. What I really liked about the film was the selection of actors and their performance, so I’ll start with them.
The union of the “infarct” elder Tunsel Curtiz and the young, beautiful Nürsel Köse brings up thoughts of a dried flower in a new crystal vase. Their characters are so different from each other externally that it immediately becomes clear: even thanks to respect, they would not be able to live together for a long time. Ali, although a licentious elderly person, but he still has something to rest, namely suspicion. And how can he think if a woman came to him from the street of red lights! Yeter I liked it better than Ali. She sacrifices herself for her daughter’s education. In general, education in the film is a general background, it is the cause of the film, it is the plot of the film, it is a separate hero.
The characters of Aiten and Nejat look completely different. The first is a man-like girl with a strong character. Most likely, she is a lion by horoscope, because so suits her lion character. There's a goal, and Aiten is looking for it, and he doesn't care about obstacles. If something doesn't fit her, she'll give up. Nejat is completely different, he is soft and seemingly weak man. Although in terms of value perception and education, he is very similar to Aiten.
Well, the last couple, mother and daughter, Susanna and Charlotte, performed by Hannah Shigulla and Patricia Tsiolkowska. Suzanne, an old woman who was very suitable for Ali, was a hippie in the past, but she corrected herself. She made a lot of mistakes that she wanted to save her daughter. Lotta, on the contrary, saw in the past of the mother only adventures that she wanted to experience herself.
Each character has a goal, and at the end of the film they fulfill it. Fatin Akih divided his film into three parts, the first and the second I liked, but the part called “On the edge of paradise” did not work out. Too little is shown, too many questions remain.