Sunday 3 August 2014

Auf der Anderen Seite

Also Known As:
Edge of Heaven; On the Other Side
Year:
2007
Country/ies:
Germany
Italy
Turkey
Predominant Genre:
Drama
Author(s)/Director(s):
Fatih Akın
Best Performance(s):
Tuncel KURTIZ
Hanna SCHYGULLA
Premiss:
A Turkish man travels to Istanbul to find the daughter of his father’s former girlfriend.
Theme(s):
Compassion
Personal change
Political Correctness
Self-expression
White culture
White guilt
White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Unknown
Review Format:
DVD

A clever and emotional film that relies on far too many coincidences to be completely convincing. But the high quality of the acting makes it compelling - so much so that you almost buy it.

An exercise in identity politics and the search for same in the context of contemporary European culture, that never quite manages to get to the heart of this inescapably-ongoing problem. Composed of abstractions-made-flesh, the characters never quite come alive since the story is not solidly-based on actual lived experience, but on theoretical propositions.

Having said that, this movie requires a box of tissues - despite the fact that the intertitles tell you what is going to happen – and it is not pretty. This inherent lack of suspense makes this also an essay in tragic inevitability.


Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.