FatihAkin Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The 34 year-old director Fatih Akin was born in Germany of Turkish ancestry, a ready-made outsider. But the most remarkable thing about his films is that while they acknowledge his cross-cultural divide, they don't necessarily deal with the issue of trying to fit in with a satisfying click on one side or another. Rather, this acknowledgment simply adds layers of color and nuance, dissolving borders rather than reinforcing them. His films have done nothing but improve: his 2000 romantic comedy In July was a delightful summer road movie with a fairly predictable conclusion. His 2005 film Head-On started out like a similar situation romance, but suddenly switched to something more dire and engaging. And now The Edge of Heaven is his most accomplished film yet. It was also another in a series of superb submissions for last year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar that the Academy chose not to nominate.

At GreenCine Daily, Dave Hudson brings word that the German Film Awards, also known as the Lolas, just awarded three of the top prizes to Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin's The Edge of Heaven. Akin has been recognized over the last decade for his explorations of the tensions between culture and religion, particularly as they pertain to German Turks. Edge of Heaven is no exception. A gorgeous survey of several interlocking tragedies, its deft structure puts Paul Haggis' Crash to shame. A German scholar struggles with his senile father's decision to bring a prostitute into their home. It gets complicated once the young man takes a liking to her. When sudden tragedy strikes, he sets out to find her next of kin for his own sense of closure. Smart without being too brooding, Edge of Heaven has a memorably epic scope. It's no wonder the Deutsche Filmakamie awarded Akin with Best Director and Screenplay awards, while Andrew Bird took home the Best Editing statue for his role in stitching the thing together.

Akin isn't the most accessible foreign filmmaker, but his movies speak to international concerns that are rarely explored in American cinema, which gives his work a unique feeling of immediately. Akin has five other features worth your attention, but don't miss this one: Edge of Heaven opens in New York on May 21, followed by a national roll-out.

If you're not familiar with Fatih Akin, it is probably because you haven't seen Head-On, which made waves in 2004. The film is about an older, drug addicted man who tries to commit suicide, and a young woman who tries to kill herself to get free of her family's oppressive beliefs. They meet, and ultimately marry to be "roommates," so that she can live the life she dreamed of. Unfortunately, that's far from the end of either person's troubles. The film might not be first on the list for smiles, but it won the FIPRESCI Prize and Golden Bear at Berlin, as well as two European Film Awards -- the Audience Award for Best Director and the top prize -- Best Film.

Akin is back with another somber tale that Variety has just given rave reviews to -- The Edge of Heaven. This time around, Akin wrote a story about a Hamburg professor, Nejat, who takes a Turkish prostitute named Yeter off the streets by proposing that she move in with him, and he will match her income. She also has a 27-year-old daughter, Ayten, who is a political activist who has no idea about her mother's life. A cheery upper of a film like Head-On, the film is broken down into two tragedy's -- the death of Yeter (mentioned in the opening title) and the death of Lotte (Ayten's eventual lover).

While the subject matter isn't bright and bushy-tailed, Variety's response is all sorts of glowing. "Akin doesn't try to hide the plot's coincidences or Swiss watch-like precision, which is given human resonance by the flawless playing of the six leads." Even with the ominous warnings of death, the mag describes Akin's style as a "long-burn approach [that] packs a considerable emotional wallop in a quiet, inclusive way." Variety also says the film is "the point at which a good director crosses the career bridge to become a substantial international talent." If that's the case, at least one part of New York, I Love You should be stellar.

Love is spreading through the cinematic world like wildfire. After Paris, je t'aime brought together the likes of the Coen Brothers, Tom Tykwer, Isabel Coixet, Gurinder Chada and other leading directors to create this varied and sectional account of Paris and love, we're now getting one about New York (with a Chinese version also on the way). Producer Emmanuel Benbihy is currently harnessing a new incarnation of directors to whip up New York, I Love You. This collection includes: Zach Braff, Mira Nair, Park Chan-Wook and Fatih Akin.

I'm kind of surprised Ethan Hawke isn't among them, or maybe Richard Linklater. The former, at the very least, is all about Gotham and the throes of love. Benhiby says: "we really want to surprise audiences with young, hip filmmakers with their own personal style and movie language."

Young and hip is great and all, but to me that sounds like they're just trying to commodify the idea, which gives me scary flashbacks to Reality Bites. Each section will be 5 minutes long to create a 100-minute final cut, and a thirteenth director will also be chosen to create transition sequences to "make the movie much more fluid." Please, please don't let the guy have actors' heads swirling on a big pizza! However, it'll be interesting to see what these directors can do with five minutes. Music video directors have jumped from the short story to the long feature, but I wonder how these guys will fair with such a small bit of time to get their point across. We should know soon enough -- they actually want the film to be out for a first-quarter 2008 release.

So, what are your thoughts? New York love -- yay or nay?