Turkish-born Fatih Akin, the German director of the winning film "The Edge of Heaven," won the European parliament's first Lux prize for cinema Wednesday.

The Lux award and its Tower of Babel-inspired trophy means the German-language film will now be subtitled in all 22 other official EU languages.

In Akin's absence, EU parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering presented the award, which looks like a stacked-up roll of film, to the film's leading actress Hanna Schygulla, known from her work with German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Pöttering told news agencies that he had not seen the three films which were shortlisted for the prize, and therefore had been unable to cast a vote with his fellow MEPs.

However he stressed that the aim of the prize was "to illustrate the linguistic richness and artistic creativity" of European cinema.

The film portrays a Turkish widower who decided to move in with a prostitute despite his son's misgivings.

Second in a trilogy

The son, a young German teacher, warms to the new woman in his father's life, Yeter, when he realises that she sends most of what she earns to her daughter in Turkey to pay for her university education.

Yeter's accidental death drives a wedge between father and son and leads them both back to Istanbul.

"The Edge of Heaven," which uses German and Turkish actors, is the second film in a trilogy. Akin's first film, "Head On," won the 2004 Golden Bear prize at the Berlin Film Festival.

Missing out on this year's prize were two other shortlisted films; the Romanian production "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" and the Franco-Portuguese "Belle toujours."