The Edge of Heaven

"Writer/director Faith Akin had a whole lot to live up to with The Edge of Heaven. His previous work, Head On, cut a swathe through awards ceremonies and critics lists all over Europe, catapulting him to wunderkind status in the world of foreign language cinema and unofficial poet laureate of the cross-cultural immigrant experience. Fortunately for him, and us, his latest offering largely succeeds in cementing that reputation."

"By the end you know the characters in it so well that you can't believe you've seen the movie only once, yet on a second viewing it seems completely new. And that may be because the world they inhabit is immediately recognizable -- until we get to heaven, it's where we live -- and like no place you've been before."

"The best approach is to begin with the characters, because the wonderful, sad, touching The Edge of Heaven is more about its characters than about its story."

"Nuanced and sophisticated Cannes-honoured drama of missed connections verges on greatness."

"Often a string of sparse frames, shot with a refreshing economy of words. The picture’s near flawless performances add to its overall appeal. Precise and smooth, The Edge of Heaven has but one jarring note: the political face-off between Susanne and Ayten at the beginning that sounds too much like a sermon. A cliché that could have best been avoided."

"Deliberately paced, The Edge of Heaven unfolds in its own bittersweet time, punctuated by a couple of unexpected moments of non-explicit, almost off-camera violence."

"The director, who also wrote the script, achieves a keen-eyed view of the Turkish expatriates in this film while sustaining his remarkable ability to make them universal."

"The Edge of Heaven has many things to say about relationships, about immigration, about crime and punishment, and it does it all with beauty, wit, and intelligence. A stunning film."