Accidental Mobility: Death and Guilt in Auf der anderen Seite

This entry is an edited version of a paper I wrote during my M.A. studies at KU Leuven under the advisory of Kris Van Heuckelom for "Changing Cultures in Europe", a class where we focused on transnationalism in modern European cinema. The movie, directed by Fatih Akın focuses on transnational mobility across Germany and Turkey. In this paper, I focus on the motifs of death and guilt.

Auf der anderen Seite presents a story of extreme mobility. This mobility seems to be rooted in class struggle as the film opens with the introduction of the immigrant worker Ali and his relationship with another immigrant worker, Yeter. However, as the film continues, this rootedness in class struggle is exchanged for the search for community, whether in the form of familial history, romantic entanglements, or political affiliations. While all the causes that trigger mobility between Germany and Turkey seem distinct, they are tied together with an accidentality that sometimes results in death and other times results in reunification with the other. In this way, the central motivations of the characters, as well as the root cause of the transnational mobility in the film, are presented to lie in guilt facilitated by familial and romantic relations.

Synopsis:

Auf der anderen Seite tells the entangled story of three families living across Turkey and Germany who cross paths with each other over the course of the movie. The film begins with the introduction of Ali, a first generation Turkish immigrant worker who is shown going into the red light district in Bremen. At the red light district, he meets Yeter, a Turkish prostitute. After their sexual encounter, Ali proposes to pay Yeter her monthly earnings from prostitution and in exchange, he asks her to move into his house where he lives with his son Nejat.

Yeter accepts Ali’s offer and moves in with him. In a drunken fury, when Ali pushes Yeter to the ground, Yeter crashes her head into furniture is accidentally killed. Following Ali’s imprisonment, Nejat decides to leave for Turkey to pay for the education of Yeter’s 27-year-old daughter Ayten. Meanwhile, Yeter’s daughter Ayten is escaping from the police after a violent protest in Istanbul. To avoid imprisonment, Ayten heads to Germany under a fake name to find her mother in Bremen. Nejat fails to find Ayten in Turkey but during his visit he stumbles upon a Turkish-German bookstore.

Nejat buys the bookstore and decides to stay for good, leaving behind his job as a German Literature professor in Germany. Ayten arrives in Hamburg embarks on a journey to look for her (now dead) mother. Left homeless, she starts secretly living at the university where Nejat works. She soon meets Lotte, a German student of English and Spanish at the university who offers her shelter. Ayten and Lotte fall in love and decide to look for Ayten’s mother together. However, during one of their trips, their car is pulled over by the police and Ayten is arrested. Lotte and her mother Susanne try to help Ayten get political asylum but they lose the case. Ayten is deported to Turkey and is immediately arrested. Lotte decides to go to Turkey to help free Ayten. She too stumbles upon the German bookstore which Nejat now owns. Lotte meets Nejat and rents the spare room in his apartment. In a turmoil involving the gun that Ayten had previously hid on the street in Istanbul, Lotte is killed. After Lotte’s death, her mother Susanne arrives in Turkey.

Riddled with guilt for abandoning Lotte, she decides to help Ayten leave prison. She visits Lotte’s apartment in Istanbul, meets Nejat and decides to rent the room during her stay. Ayten is soon freed. Meanwhile, Ali is deported to Turkey after his imprisonment and heads to his birthplace Trabzon on the coast of the Black Sea. Nejat decides to forgive his father and heads to Trabzon as well. The film's last scene shows Nejat waiting for Ali to return from his fishing trip to see him for the first time after years, on the coast of the Black Sea.

Multiculturalism Through On-Screen Mobility

The entangled configuration of space and time and its relation to multiculturalism is apparent in the first scene of the movie as Barbara Mennel points out, “The Edge of Heaven begins with a shot at a gas station—a stopping point that enables mobility—in the Black Sea region, which reappears toward the end of the film” (Mennel). In the opening scene, the camera moves from left to right, panning across the exterior of the gas station, offering visual mobility as well as conceptual mobility through the image of the gas station (Auf der anderen Seite 00:20 - 01:02). The audience only contextualizes the opening scene at the very end of the film as the scene is temporally located in the aftermath of all the events. The film begins at its end.

In this scene, Nejat arrives at a gas station in Trabzon, on his way to meet his father following his deportation. Kazım Koyuncu, a very famous artist from the Black Sea region is playing. Nejat however, is unfamiliar with the artist (Auf der anderen Seite 01:17 - 01:21). Ali’s return to Trabzon brings up the “idealization of the homeland” within diasporic communities (Naficy 14). Nejat is a mobile outsider in the opening scene. He is on the road. Considering the prevalence of Kazım Koyuncu in Turkish popular culture, Nejat’s ignorance of the artist already positions him as an outsider. Still, the use of Kazım Koyuncu in the opening of the film seems fitting for a film that centers around issues of multiculturalism. Erkan Saral examines Kazım Koyuncu as an instance of “cultural hybridization” as the artist brings together elements of Black Sea folk music and rock music together in his oeuvre. What is known as “Black Sea Rock” today, has its foundations in Kazım Koyuncu’s music according to Erkan Saral (244).

The following sequence takes place in Bremen on 1 May, where the camera cuts to scenes of extreme mobility where different political groups are marching through the city center in celebration. Ali is portrayed in motion too, as he is walking toward the red light district, smiling at the marching crowds (Auf der anderen Seite 02:35 - 02:47). Meanwhile, the camera turns from left to right following Ali’s trajectory. Ali too, is a figure of mobility as an immigrant worker. His personal relationships are also multicultural as when he first meets Yeter, they speak in German despite both of them being Turkish (Auf der anderen Seite 03:20 - 04:06). Ali realizes that Yeter is Turkish upon hearing Turkish music in her room (Auf der anderen Seite 04:07). Gueneli analyzes the sound of Neşe Karaböcek in Yeter’s room as an instance of the layers of multiculturalism in the film while pointing to the song’s hybrid nature between “tango” and “classic Turkish music” (Gueneli 454).

In this scene too, music works with the visuals that emphasize mobility and otherness. Yeter’s position on the screen as Ali walks into Helenenstrasse is on the window of the basement of her apartment and she is framed with significantly dimmer lighting than rest of the presumably german sex workers who are sat on chairs, sitting on the stairs or standing outside their apartments. Ali and Yeter’s initial conversation on the window is once more multiculturally oriented as Ali asks, “Machst du französisch?” (Auf der anderen Seite 03.29). A Turkish immigrant worker in Bremen asking for a sexual act stereotyped as “french” signals to multiculturalism within the sexual sphere. Yeter replies, “Französisch, Italienisch, Griechisch. Für dich, mach ich international” (Auf der anderen Seite 03:34). This exchange is soon followed by Ali’s proposal to Yeter to pay her earnings from sex work in exchange for moving in with him as a monogamous sexual partner. This is where the community building in the form of monogamous partnership and sharing of the private space is presented in relation to the immigrant worker characters of the film.

The representation of the mobility of the characters continues in the domestic space. When Yeter goes to dinner at Ali and Nejat’s apartment, the characters are in constant movement through their appeal to politeness, where they race one another for the serving of the dinner (Auf der anderen Seite 15:04 - 16:15). This scene is marked by the up and down movement of the characters attempting to stand up to get various items from the kitchen. In this scene, Nejat’s decision to respond to Yeter and Ali in German is worth noting.

As a second-generation immigrant, Nejat is a professor of German Literature. His mobility is more complex compared to Ali and Yeter. When he lectures on Goethe at the university, he appears completely static (Auf der anderen Seite 08:59 - 09:18). Meanwhile, the camera rotates around him. He speaks in a monotone voice. As he continues the lecture, the rotation is interrupted with a still shot of a sleeping student in the back of the classroom who later turns out to be Ayten (Auf der anderen Seite 09:19). This scene is extremely static and suggests a rigidity within the institution of the German university with Nejat’s lecture on Goethe’s favoring of evolution against revolution dominating the large hall. It is also worth noting that this scene is preceded by the scene at the hippodrome where Ali and Nejat are watching a horse race and where horizontal movement dominates the screen. The sharp contrast between the two scenes in terms of movement further emphasizes Nejat’s entrapment within the environment of German scholarship. Ayten’s asleep state during this lecture is reminiscent of death, especially considering her role as an activist advocating for “Hundred percent social education” (Auf der anderen Seite 58:16).

Death and the Politics of Mobility

In the first chapter of the film titled “Yeters Tod” (“Yeter’s Death”) as well as the second chapter titled “Lottes Tod” (“Lotte’s Death”), death dominates the narrative. Further, death triggers the mobility between Germany and Turkey. While initially, transnational mobility is established to be motivated by economic causes through the figure of the immigrant worker, after Yeter’s death, it appears to be triggered by feelings of guilt caused primarily by death and secondarily by threats to personal freedom.

The feeling of guilt often pertains to familial ties. When Ali kills Yeter, Nejat feels a responsibility towards Yeter’s daughter Ayten’s education. Accordingly, he goes to Istanbul in search of Ayten. Death triggering transnational mobility is most apparent in the scene where Yeter’s casket is being deposited from the Turkish Airlines plane to the ground (Auf der anderen Seite 28:23 - 28:43). As the casket moves on the platform from the plane to the carrier, the camera moves from right to left along with the casket. This scene is later mirrored after Lotte’s death as her casket is transferred onto a plane from the ground.

In the film, the relationship between death and forgiveness is not simply a relationship of compensation. Rather, death motivates the mobility that comes with the desire for forgiveness and atonement. Both in Yeter and Lotte’s case, death results in the permanent displacement of other characters. These displacements are not only a return to the homeland as in Ali’s case but also displacements into the land of the other as in Susanne and Nejat’s case. Here, as Silvey and Hillman points out, Turkey is presented as the final destination for all of the characters. When Sussanne finds Lotte’s diary in her room in Istanbul, she finds out that Lotte associates herself with Sussanne’s youth (Auf der anderen Seite 1:32:31 - 1:33:07). Later when she wakes up in the morning after reading the diary, Sussanne sees a vision of Lotte smiling at her, signaling forgiveness and understanding (Auf der anderen Seite 1:33:38 - 1:33:43). Even after forgiveness has been found as in the case of Susanne, all characters choose to stay in Turkey.

Is Ayten an Exception?

Ayten’s mobility in the film does not fit the model motivated by death. Although death influences Ayten’s mobility in Germany, it is not the main motivation for her movement from Turkey to Germany. Ayten arrives in Germany to escape political persecution in Turkey. Ayten’s mobility is significantly more political than the rest of the characters. While not motivated by death, her mobility eventually becomes the reason for Lotte's death. Ayten is the most mobile character in the film, both in terms of transnational mobility and physical movement. Her first appearance is in a sleep state in Nejat’s classroom, almost foreshadowing an incoming death; however, her initial stagnancy appears as a response to Nejat’s lecture on the anti-revolutionary thought of Goethe.

With the appearance of Ayten, the film changes focus from the immigrant worker to the political activist, taking discussion away from class struggle. Ayten is introduced during the 1 May protest in Istanbul, fleeing from the police, in possession of a stolen gun (Auf der anderen Seite 39:56 - 40:05). Throughout this scene, Ayten is looking back towards the camera, checking for followers while rapidly walking away from the ruckus. Behind her is a policeman. In the next shot, a crowd of policemen are running in search of her (Auf der anderen Seite 40:08). Ayten, therefore, is both the source of her own movement and that of the others.

When Ayten arrives in Germany under a fake identity, she is shown marking a map, looking for possible places she might find her mother (Auf der anderen Seite 46:35 - 46:39). The association of Ayten with a map is significant as she appears almost as the symbol of mobility in the film. The contrast between manners of political mobility in German and Turkish societies are most evident through the figure of Ayten. When Ayten is staying with Lotte and Susanne during her time in Hamburg, she engages in conversation about her politics with Susanne (Auf der anderen Seite 57:29-59:20). In this scene there is a clear distinction between the degrees of mobility of Susanne and Ayten as Oana M. Chivoiu says:

Susanne is territorial; she safeguards vigilantly the symbolic identity of her home, which is her own space of definition and gratification. Her minimal body movements and voluntary entrapment in the space of her home suggest the embodiment of a German consciousness anchored in nationalism and resistance to multiculturalism. (Chivoiu 94)

While Ayten’s physical dynamism distinguishes her from other characters and at times renders her almost as a foil against Nejat, there is also the transnational aspect of her mobility. She is the only character who undergoes a round-trip journey in the duration of the movie. She goes from Turkey to Germany to escape political persecution and she is deported to Turkey from Germany after losing her case for political asylum. In contrast, Ali, Yeter, Nejat, Lotte and Susanne are already in Germany when the film begins. Although Ali and Yeter have a history of transnational mobility due to their status as immigrant workers, when the film begins they have already been assimilated into German society for the most part. The film does not show their journey from Turkey to Germany looking for work. Nejat was born and raised in Germany despite his Turkish origins and has similarly assimilated into German society to the point of becoming a professor of German Literature. Lotte and Susanne are already German citizens. Therefore, Ayten’s mobility stands apart from the others.

Her journey from Turkey to Germany and then back to Turkey also triggers the mobility of Lotte and Susanne. In addition, her familial relation to Yeter also triggers Nejat’s journey. In this way, she is the most clear figure representative of transnational mobility in the film. Unlike the other characters, she is an illegal alien during her time in the land of the other as she arrives in Germany with a fake passport under the name Gül Korkmaz (Auf der anderen Seite 43:48). Ali arrives in Turkey as a resident, Nejat, Lotte and Susanne move to Turkey under the law. Ayten’s characterization is centered around her political identity as “a member of a political resistance group in Turkey” (Auf der anderen Seite 58:03). Therefore, this identity is the main reason for her transnational mobility.

Ayten’s political and sexual identity however, was a cause of concern both for the actress Nurgül Yeşilçay and the director Fatih Akın as Naiboğlu points out, “Being a famous figure in Turkey, it was a challenge for her [Nurgül Yeşilçay] to play a homosexual activist. Akin highlights the risk in the reception of homosexuality in Turkey yet Nurgul Yesilcay states that she had concerns about playing a PKK ‘militant’ rather than playing a lesbian” (Naiboğlu 91). Ayten therefore, was the other both within and outside the film's narrative. Her victimization stemming from her otherness causes Lotte and Susanne’s move to Turkey.

However, Naimoğlu argues that Ayten’s otherness is a strategically calculated otherness as she says, “Akin portrays the political milieu of today‟s Turkey of ‘human rights violations’ to the European spectator, yet first he conditions it for the Turkish eye” (Naiboğlu 92). Therefore, while Ayten triggers mobility for the other characters, she is only able to do so because of the calculated “acceptability” of her identity (Naiboğlu 92). The accidentality of death in the film contributes to the notion of acceptability which facilitates mobility in the film. Both Yeter and Lotte die by accident. In this way, Nejat and Susanne’s transnational mobility is made possible through the implementation of the representation of guilt and the possibility for forgiveness.

Fatih Akın’s Auf der anderen Seite presents a discussion of transnational mobility that moves away from the image of the immigrant worker towards one that addresses issues of globalization. Akın presents entangled interpersonal and familial relationships with a plot that revolves around accidentality and guilt that in turn facilitates mobility for the characters. The horizontal movements of the camera and the differences in the dynamism of the characters supports the discussion of transnational mobility and in this way, Akın offers the visual representation of the narrative entanglements which strengthens the film’s complex consideration of movement.

Works Cited

Auf der anderen Seite. Directed by Fatih Akın, Corazon International, 2007.

Breger, Claudia. “Configuring Affect: Complex World Making in Fatih Akin’s ‘Auf Der Anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven).’” Cinema Journal, vol. 54, no. 1, 2014, pp. 65–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43653657. Accessed 4 Jun. 2022.

Chivoiu, Oana M. "The Geopolitics Of Maternal Bliss In Faith Akin’S The Edge Of Heaven". Disjointed Perspectives On Motherhood, Catalina Florina Florescu, Lexington Books, 2013, pp. 89-103.

Çelik Rappas, İpek A. "The “Guest” Who Refuses To Work, The “Terrorist” Who Contemplates Global Hunger: Minorities In Fatih Akin Films". Central European History, vol 53, no. 2, 2020, pp. 453-458. Cambridge University Press (CUP), https://doi.org/10.1017/s0008938920000199. Accessed 4 June 2022.

Gueneli, Berna. “Remixing Film Histories: Fatih Akın and the Creation of a Transnational Film History.” Colloquia Germanica, vol. 44, no. 4, 2011, pp. 450–66. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24329990. Accessed 4 Jun. 2022.

Landfester, Petra. "Local And Transnational Claims In The Films Of Fatih Akin: Recognition And The Gaze At The Body In Akin And Fassbinder’S Films". Monatshefte, vol 109, no. 1, 2017, pp. 81-99. Project Muse, https://doi.org/10.3368/m.109.1.81. Accessed 4 Jun. 2022.

Leal, Joanne, and Klaus-Dieter Rossade. "Negotiating Gender, Sexuality And Ethnicity In Fatih Akın’S And Thomas Arslan’S Urban Spaces". GFL, vol 3, 2008, pp. 59-87. Gfl-Journal, http://www.gfl-journal.de/3-2008/leal-rossade.pdf. Accessed 4 Jun. 2022.

Mennel, Barbara. "Criss-Crossing in Global Space and Time: Fatih Akın’s The Edge of Heaven (2007)". Transit, vol 5, no. 1, 2009. Escholarship, https://doi.org/10.5070/t751009745. Accessed 4 Jun. 2022.

Naficy, Hamid. An Accented Cinema. Princeton University Press, 2001.

Naiboglu, Gözde. “'Sameness' in Disguise of 'Difference'? Gender and National Identity in Fatih Akin's Gegen Die Wand and Auf Der Anderen Seite.” German as a Foreign Language GFL, vol. 3, 2010, p. 75. Gfl-Journal, http://www.gfl-journal.de/3-2010/Naiboglu.pdf. Accessed 4 Jun. 2022.

Saral, Erkan. “Kültürel Melezleşme Olgusunun Karadeniz Popüler Müziği Üzerindeki Görünümü /The View Of The Cultural Miscegenation Fact On The Black Sea Popular Music.” Researcher, vol. 8, no. 1, 2020, pp. 236-247. DergiPark, https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/researcher/issue/66638/1042743#article_cite. Accessed 4 Jun. 2022.

Silvey, Vivien, and Roger Hillman. “Akin's Auf Der Anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven) and the Widening Periphery.” German as a Foreign Language GFL, vol. 3, 2010, pp. 99-116. Gfl-Journal, http://www.gfl-journal.de/3-2010/SilveyHillman.pdf. Accessed 4 Jun. 2022.