The German title of the film (Auf der anderen Seite) means something like “on the other side”. Fatih Akin, the German writer and director of Turkish background has wonderful material to work with (growing up with Turkish parents in Germany) but lacks the skill to shape the material into a first-class film. He comes across like a recent film school graduate who received money to turn his school project into a full feature film: the writing is unfocused and, worse, he shoots the film in such a way that you always remember that everything is an act rather than real. By not allowing the fundamental magic of movies to unfold where you lose yourself into the plot as if you were watching a real thing, Aktin is making it unnecessarily hard for the viewer. I recommend that you watch instead http://peter.murmann.name/movies_comments.php?id=256_0_2_0_C ]The Lives of Others[/url]which shows you what a good filmmaker can do with powerful material.