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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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