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Writer-director Fatih Akin follows up the lauded Head-On with another ambitious melodrama (part two in his Love, Death And The Devil trilogy). Shuttling between locations in Germany and Turkey, the Babel-esque narrative explores the connections between three families: a septuagenarian Turkish father living in Bremen with his academic son (Baki Davrak); a prostitute who sends money to her political activist daughter (Nurgul Yesilcay) in Istanbul; and a German mother (Fassbinder regular Hanna Schygulla) with a lesbian daughter. Strewn with coincidence and tragedy, The Edge Of Heaven is undeniably schematic in outline. Yet it’s shot in a precise, contemplative style and acted with clout by the ensemble cast. Akin’s compassion for the characters is clear, not least in the concluding mood of forgiveness.

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