آیت الله منتظری درگذشت. برای من این خبر شوک آور بود، مثل خیلی ها. اولین آگاهی من از این نام همراه بود با این داده ها: که انقلاب اسلامی چقدر خوب و به موقع بوده؛ که ما چقدر خوشبختیم که این افتخار نصیبمان شده است که فرزندان انقلاب لقب بگیریم؛ که اگر نبودند مردانی چون "امام خمینی" و "آیت الله منتظری" ما چه سرنوشت شومی نصیبمان می شد.
مثل تصاویر دیروز، مثل روز، به یاد می آورم آن روزی که مدیر مدرسه مان سر صف آمد و گفت که دیگر از امروز نگوییم، "درود بر منتظری / قایم مقام رهبری." در همان عالم بچگی احساس می کردم که یک جای این کار می لنگد. و به گفت قدیمی ها کاسه ای زیر نیم کاسه است. ولی چه حیف که خود سانسوری و خفقان باعث می شد که هیچ کس به ما نمی گفت اوضاع از چه قرار است. هیچ کس به ما نمی گفت که مطرود شدن و مهدور شدن سرنوشت کسانی خواهد بود که در زمانی که نباید لب به گفتن حقایق می گشایند. هیچ کس به ما نگفت که مایی که همه چیز به نظرمان سرراست می رسید، اشتباه می کردیم. که دست بر قضا همان آیت الله بود که راست فکر می کرد و درست می گفت.
البته حالا که گذشته و من هم به خیل کسانی پیوسته ام که پس از مرگ بزرگی شروع می کنند به مدحش. و از فرش به عرشش می برند. کار از کار گذشته و حالا دیگر "ساعت پنج عصر است" و "باران به دهانش می بارد."
اسمش را بگذارید تصادف یا هر چه، که من امروز، سی ام آذر هزار و سیصد و هشتاد و هشت، تازه فهمیدم که اسپینوزا- نه جان لاک- اسپینوزا را پدر واقعی لیبرال دموکراسی می شناسند. اسمش را تصادف یا هر چه می خواهید بگذازید که من، هم امروز، فهمیده ام که شیرین عبادی، شیرزن عرصه ی قضا، نه تنها آیت الله را پدر، که "پدر حقوق بشر ایران" خطاب می کند؛ که من همین امروز فهمیده ام که آیت الله را از چپی و کمونیست تا حجت الاسلام همگی می ستودند. که من تا چه حد می توانستم از آزادگی این "شیر-آهن-کوه- مرد" بیاموزم و فرصت از کف دادم.
ولی می دانید به چه می اندیشم؟: به احساسی که بزرگترین ترجمانش این است:
هرگز نمیرد آن که دلش زنده شد به عشق
ثبت است بر جریده ی عالم دوام ما
Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,
Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,
Spares but the cloudy border of his base
To the foiled searching of mortality;
Matthew Arnold
Yeter, a Turkish prostitute in Germany, finds a way to escape her predicament and takes it. Ali, a Turkish émigré in Germany, finds a way to make a change in someone's life and takes it. Nejat, Ali's son, gets the feeling that he has a duty toward a perfect stranger and embraces it. Ayten, Yeter's daughter, tries very hard to find her way in life and is thwarted in every possible way. Charlotte, a German student of English and Spanish, falls in love with Ayten and finds a way to manifest her love and takes it. Susanne, Charlotte's mother, finds out, in a shocking revelation, that whatever she has tried her daughter not to be is exactly what she herself had been; so, instead of being angry with her daughter decides to follow her way.
II.
In Persian poetry, one can rarely find the word journey carry one meaning. It almost always has the dual meaning of physically taking a trip and mentally reaching a new place within one's psyche. It almost always means change. And change is what Fatih Akin reveals in his breathtaking movie, "Edge of Heaven." All the characters in this movie are shown traveling to another country. And also there are moments in which all the protagonists show metamorphosis. What's more, they often learn how to do this the hardest way possible. It seems like you have to lose your dearest beloved to be able to take the final leap of faith. And don't get me wrong here. I'm not talking about the religious aura which is attached to the word faith. It has nothing to do with that. It's the faith in humans. The leap occurs when the protagonists start to believe that there is something they can do to help out someone else, another human being, who is, by the way, a stranger. The characters are looking for the exactly same person to help, without knowing it; without being bestowed the opportunity to really help the one they crave to help. Susanne seems to be the only person who gets the chance to help someone, but again at a very high personal cost.
A gay man finds himself loving a girl, and two straight girls find themselves in love with each other. An old woman finds out she has been running away from her youth's interests in vain, and goes back to them. Even when the director doesn't have the time to show how one of the characters, Ali Aksu, has changed in character, he shows us his new face, with a mustache.
Change is a theme that happens to the movie itself, too. At the beginning of the movie Nejat goes into a supermarket and hears a piece of music and asks about it. The salesperson says something about the singer. In the middle of the movie, we see the exact scene again, with the exact dialog, but this time the singer is different; this time a woman is singing the song. At the end of the movie we hear the same song again, and this time it seems that someone else, an old man, is singing the same song. Nothing remains unchanged here.
III.
Faith Akin seems to be living in two worlds. Well, you might say, it doesn't take a genius to see that, since he is a Turk born and brought up in Germany. But what makes him different, in my opinion, is the fact that he is not a Turk who lives and works in Germany. Nor is he a German with a Turkish descent. He is 'both' at the same time. Like his characters, Nejat in "Edge of Heaven" and Cahit in "Head-On", he seems to be torn apart between these two beings. You might say he is more Turkish (he accepted his Cannes prize on behalf of Turkish Cinema), but just for the sake of example look at Charlotte and Susanne in this movie, and Cahit's therapist in "Head-On", and then you can obviously see how he feels about the German side of his being.
Akin has shown his responsibility as an "Engaged Artist" both in his life and in his cinema. He was once investigated by German police for wearing a T-shirt with a Swastika on it in place of the "S" in the word Bush to show that the Bush Administration is like the Third Reich. In a scene of Edge of Heaven two Turkish fundamentalists try to lead Yeter back to the path of Allah, but ironically the way they choose to do this is to threaten her. For yet another example of how Akin believes in humanity and not religion or any other kind of ideology, let's remember that Ayten finally repents from being a member of what seems to be a terrorist leftist group.
IV.
I have seen movies in which the director tells you, in advance, what is going to happen next. Or when the narrator confides in you a secret which the protagonist should know but doesn't (the most surprising revelation of this kind to me is still what happens in Hitchcock's "Vertigo"). But what the director does here is quite innovative. He divides the movie into three parts and at the beginning of the two first ones, he tells you which one of the main characters is going to die. Then he goes on and kills those characters in a way that is still shocking to the spectator who already knew it was going to happen. The trick is that he doesn't dramatize it. In both cases the one who dies is not even in front of the camera. We see the one who kills and not the one who dies. And both deaths are mere accidents.
There is also this obscure matter of non-linear narration. I've said before that in my opinion this matter is turning out to be a popular toy for most directors to play with. But Akin is definitely not playing with it. He repeats some scenes twice. One of the times seems to be anachronistic, and the other, right in its proper place in the plot of the movie. And each time he does it, he 'mentally' takes you back to the first time you saw that scene. This time everything is different, not that what you see is different, but that you, as the spectator, are a different person now; because in the second time, you know things which you didn't, and got feelings for the characters which you couldn't conceive of.
V.
For me Fatih Akin is already in the pantheon of the greatest directors. After watching "Head-On," I told a friend that his movie somehow reminded me of Fasbinder and he told me I was exaggerating. But after seeing Hanna Schygulla shining in the role of Susanne I got the feeling that I was right.
One thing is for sure, Akin is not comfortably numb. He sees the pain, feels it, and shows it in a graceful manner for us to understand. And I salute him for that. After all his first name means the conqueror, doesn't it?