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.