:: DETAILS

Reg./Dir.: Fatih Akin Scen./Script: Faith Akin Fot./Phot: Rainer Klausmann (BVK) Mont./Ed: Sceg./Prod. des: Tamo Kunz, Sırma Bradley Cost: Katrin Aschendorf Mus.: Shantel CAST: Nurgül Yeşilçay, Baki Davrak, Patrycia Ziolkowska, Nursel Köse ,Tuncel Kurtiz, Hanna Schygulla Prod.: Fatih Akin Andreas Thiel Klaus Maeck Co-prod.: Erhan Özoğul Funda Ödemiş Ali Akdeniz Contact: The Match Factory GmbH Tel:+49 (0)221 539 709-0 E-mail:info@matchfactory.de Distr.: The Match Factory GmbH Germania/Germany 2007 116 min. /35mm

:: PLOT

Nejat seems to disapprove of his widower father Ali's choice of a prostitute, called Yeter, as a live-in girlfriend. But he soon grows fond of her after he discovers that she is sending money home to Turkey to pay for her daughter's university studies. Yeter's sudden death causes father and son to grow apart. Nejat decides to travel to Istanbul to search for Yeter's daughter, Ayten. A political activist, Ayten has however been forced to flee from the Turkish police and is already in Germany. Having been befriended by a young woman, Lotte, the rebellious Ayten is invited to stay at her new friend’s home. Lotte’s gesture of hospitality does not prove particularly pleasing to her conservative mother Susanne. When Ayten is arrested and her asylum plea denied, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey. Lotte travels to Turkey, where she gets caught up in the seemingly hopeless complexities of gaining Ayten’s release.

:: BIOGRAPHY

Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage. While studying Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts, he wrote and directed his first short, ”Sensin – You’re the One” (1995), which received the Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. This was followed by ”Weed” (1996). His first feature, ”Short Sharp Shock” (1998), won Locarno’s Bronze Leopard and the Bavarian Film Award for Best Young Director. ”The Edge of Heaven” is Fatih Akin’s fifth fiction feature and had its world premiere in Competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. ”Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul” (2005) featured the wide variety of music found in contemporary Turkey. 2003’s ”Head-on” won the Berlinale Golden Bear, as well as Best Film at the German and European Film Awards.

:: FILMOGRAPHY

2007 The Edge of Heaven (Auf Der Anderen Seite) 2005 Crossing the Bridge – The sound of Istanbul (doc.) 2003 Head-on (Gegen die Wand) 2002 Solino 2001 Wir Haben Vergessen Zurueckzukehren (doc.) 2000 In July (Im Juli) 1998 Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und Schmerzlos)