The Edge of Heaven in the UK.

"Fatih Akin, whose Head-On (2004) is one of the great films of the decade, returns to scour the same vexed ground of exile and migration in The Edge of Heaven," writes Anthony Quinn in the Independent. "His obsession with the relationship between Germany and Turkey (his roots lie in both) is becoming as intense as Sam Peckinpah's with the US and Mexico, only with less blood and whisky."

"This is an intriguing, complex, beautifully acted and directed piece of work, partly a realist drama of elaborate coincidences, near-misses and near-hits, further tangled with shifts in the timeline - and partly an almost dreamlike meditation with visual symmetries and narrative rhymes," writes Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian.

Updated through 2/24.

In the Evening Standard, Derek Malcolm notes that of Akin's five features, "This is his least melodramatic and most assured."

"As in Head-On, fate dominates proceedings, but there’s no escaping the contrivances of Akin's script," writes Dave Calhoun for Time Out.

Earlier: Reviews from Cannes.

Updates, 2/24: "If you dislike The Edge of Heaven you could, as I've suggested, sneer at the use of coincidence," writes Philip French in the Observer. "If you think well of it, as I do, you will accept it as a carefully patterned narrative of parallels, echoes and fateful encounters that reflect on the relationships between father and son, mother and daughter, on the themes of duty, obligation, sacrifice and redemption, and above all on the nature of family, exile, roots and national identity."

And, as noted above, Catherine Wheatley reviews Edge for Sight & Sound.

Posted by dwhudson at February 22, 2008 5:38 AM