Seeking another justice in Fatih Akın’s “The Edge of Heaven” (2004) and “In the Fade” (2017)

ABSTRACT

This study explores the representation of the other in relation to justice regardless of ethnicity in two Fatih Akın films: The Edge of Heaven and In The Fade. By addressing the potential effect of transnationalism on the narrative in both films in terms of the portrayal of the other and the self, this paper offers an alternative reading of the representation of justice as served by a westerner, albeit in different ways. Unlike most works on Akın’s cinema, this paper aims to reveal whether Akın’s films embrace the concept of western superiority against the other in the context of justice. To that end, this paper explores how the film characters, on their quest for justice, might reflect the director’s political view. The main analysis first examines the representation of the other, and then, the representation of justice as it relates to the main characters within the scope of transnationalism in both films and discusses how this problematizes the concepts of the other and the self.

KEYWORDS:

• Fatih Akın
• Turkish-German cinema
• transnationalism
• othering
• justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. According to German police reports, the Neo-Nazis were accused of killing 10 people, 9 of whom were German citizens from immigrant backgrounds. For more details, please see Graef (2020).

2. Since this paper does not focus on Akın’s cinema through Naficy’s accented cinema, a broader examination of Naficy’s theories is not mentioned here.