Monday, October 13, 2008

The Edge of Heaven - October 17th

Review by Damien Becker.

The Edge of Heaven is Port Fairy Film Society’s October screening after our Annual General Meeting this Friday at 7.30pm.

This German/ Turkish film directed by Fatih Akin takes the idea we have seen recently in Crash and Babel that many of our stories are linked in ways we don’t see, so that the viewer, witness to the concidences and near misses, is drawn to shout, ‘Look out behind you!’ to help the characters along.

Chance intertwines the lives of six characters. A retired Turkish widower living in Germany invites a younger woman to stay with him for payment. She accepts, partly to help her daughter whom she thinks is studying in Turkey but who is in fact on the run in Germany as a wanted terrorist. A German mother despairs for her daughter who has fallen in love with the young fugitive. The widower’s son returns to Turkey as redemption for a crime he cannot understand. Two of the six will die, the others left to reassemble their lives. 

Winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes, The Edge of Heaven requires patient viewing, which is rewarded by the detailed observation of the characters lives and the essential humanity of their dilemmas. The film lacks the polish or overt political commentary of Babel, but it’s a more humble film and a better one for that reason. It is also a not-so-gentle reminder of the complexities of the modern European dream. Akin is a gutsy filmmaker because he’s prepared to gamble that there is there is more meaning in the spaces in between action – the silence in conversation, the gaps in narrative, the physicality of a loved one’s absence – and that film can be a way to convey this.

"Circular in structure and story, this potent drama captures all the pathos and surprise of life itself,” wrote Louise Kellar of Urban Cinefile.

“It’s a truly excellent film,” said Margaret Pomeranz from ABC TV’s At the Movies. “Four-and-a-half stars.”

Click below for preview:

A screening of the Moyneyana House short film ‘A Little More Conversation, a Little Less Action’ will take place before the main film.

AGM starts at 7.30pm. Memberships, tea, coffee and lollies are available at the door from 7.15pm.