Auf der anderen Seite (The edge of heaven)

I watch a lot of movies these days. It's summer, and there's too much light for my vampire life. I went to the movies tonight to watch Auf der anderen Seite and I liked it just as much as I've liked Fatih Akin's previous works (Gegen die Wand, Crossing the bridge).

Auf der... is a political film. But it is also a love story. Two stories are told, and they finally blend into each other. He's treading a dangerous path here, Akin, as the film could easily have come out as mannered and, well, too self-conscious. Even though a lot happens in the film and the plot contains many dramatic turns, I wasn't really thinking that the whole thing was an attempt to manipulate the viewer into Great Emotions. The emotions it did evoke - endless grief - felt real enough. At least that's what I thought. Akin's characters are richely described, never simplified into clichés, and the cinematography bustles with life, just as the characters.

One of my favorite scenes of the film involves a dispute between one of the main characters, a Kurd activist, Ayten, and her lover's mother. Ayten walks into the kitchen and lights a cigarette. The mother, who doesn't seem to approve of her daughter's choice of partner, tells her she can't smoke inside. The mother inquires Ayten about her life situation, and she tells her she's a political refugee, that she is an activist who works for human rights. In a dry, know-it-all, glossing-over kind of voice, the mother tells Ayten that everything will be better, once Turkey joins the EU. Ayten snarls that EU will change nothing, as EU is led by colonial powers such as France, England and Germany. For some reason, I found that to be a really powerful scene - one out of many, that brings politics back to a level of ordinary conversation & real lives.

Akin pays attention to details, to the small things that matter, and that's what makes a film like this, with a quite - if I may say so - melodramatic plot - work. If any other director would work with this material, I'm not sure what the result would be. I'm glad that our otherwise totally crappy, business-minded movie distributors had the good taste to let Finnish audiences enjoy this gem of a film.